GAae1 TIL Japanese soldiers bayonetted children in Nanking, practiced bayonet charges on live prisoners.
164kP TIL that airport runways are numbered based on their compass direction. Runway 27 literally means 270 degrees (west).
oR0pL TIL that the first webcam ever made wasn’t for video calls it was created by scientists to check if a coffee pot was empty.
dDg7d TIL Walter Francis White was a Jim Crow era black man who had white skin, blonde hair, blue eyes, and used it to sneak in and document lynching
KY1L4 TIL that Thomas Harris, creator of Hannibal Lecter, has only written six novels in 50 years; five have been adapted into films, and four feature Hannibal. He also went 43 years without a major media interview.
a8bYy TIL that males can get breast cancer
ZpbeQ TIL In Las Vegas there are about 1500 undomiciled people living in the storm drains and tunnels refered to as "Mole people"
786LX TIL about Kotaku Wamura, who served as the mayor of the village of Fudai, Iwate between 1947 and 1987. During his tenure, he spent ¥3.56 billion on building a floodgate, which was derided as being a waste of funds. When the 2011 tsunami hit, the gate saved the village from the destruction.
kJbpE TIL that upon his 1926 death, the will of a wealthy Toronto lawyer promised a large fortune to the Toronto woman who would have the most children. After a decade of legal fights, 4 women (each with 9 children) would share the prize, of which the Toronto government garnished a significant share.
Eg7M7 TIL the word for geyser is derived from Geysir, the oldest known periodically erupting hot spring in Iceland
Y7bVd TIL that the first use of "cleavage" to refer to a woman's breasts was in relation to Jane Russell in the 1943 film The Outlaw when the MPAA took action against the film. Director Howard Hughes designed a prototype for an underwire bra to give Russell "five and one-quarter inches" long cleavage."
BgYLe TIL that before the 1666 fire, Old St Paul’s Cathedral doubled as London’s gossip hub: “news-mongers” paced its nave for the latest talk. A contemporary playwright said Paul’s Walk was an “open house” where people “go up and down… grumbling together,” amid beggars, thieves and prostitutes.