/f/todayilearned
TIL in 2003, 12yo Auri Allen was featured on Ripley's Believe It or Not due to his massive size, nicknamed Baby Shaq. By 2006, he was regarded as one of the top 5 basketball players in the country, until a car crash paralyzed him. He later became a Head Coach and founded his own basketball academy.
oklahoman.comSubmitted by SlipperyThong t3_y9530o
Submitted by StoryAndAHalf t3_y6k4rp
TIL that France and Spain "went to war" over a few stop signs in the 1970s and 1980s when France built two new roads that crossed a Spanish road and installed new stop signs which Spanish citizens continually removed over and over again for years. This became known as the "War of the Stop Signs".
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by AxelNotRose t3_ydmfzt
TIL The European 30 Years' War 1618 - 1648 began with Czech nobles throwing two Habsburg governors out of Prague castle window onto a huge dungheap. The corresponding carnage - fought over the issue of religious freedom following the Protestant Reformation - left millions dead.
britannica.comSubmitted by Royal_Bumblebee_ t3_ydslck
TIL: Asthmador was an asthma treatment in the US in the 1950s. It was made up of 3 toxic/hallucinogenic compounds belladonna (atropine), stramonium (nightshade/jimson weed), and potassium perchlorate (oxidant commonly used in fireworks). One common delivery method for Asthmador - cigarettes!
catobear.comSubmitted by Geek_Nan t3_yhlfzz
TIL about the famous American novelist Winston Churchill who was the reason why the British prime minister referred to himself as Winston Spencer Churchill. They met on occasion, but gradually Spencer Churchill’s rise to power steamrolled the American into obscurity.
wikipedia.orgSubmitted by OneLastConquest t3_yaqi45
TIL 1950s/60s songwriter Doc Pomus had polio as a child, resulting in serious mobility issues. On his wedding day he was unable to dance with his new wife Willi Burke, a dancer. Watching her dance with the other male guests inspired him to write the song "Save the Last Dance For Me".
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by big_macaroons t3_ycsl14
TIL that before Lincoln Center could reward David Geffen's $100 Million donation by renaming "Avery Fisher Hall" to "David Geffen Hall", they had to pay the heirs of Fisher - the original donor - $15 million. Geffen's donation has a provision that requires his name to be on the hall "in perpetuity".
playbill.comSubmitted by AspireAgain t3_y464wu
TIL: During the US Civil War, a father issued a writ of habeus corpus to get his underaged Son out of the US Army, when the writ was delivered to the camp, the provost had both the lawyer who had delivered the writ, and the Judge who had issued the writ arrested and imprisoned.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by hoosyourdaddyo t3_y44jeh