› added 1 year ago

40

TIL The Chequered flag originated in a road rally, in 1906. S.Walden divided the courses into sections; the time check at the end of each section was performed by race officials called "checkers". These checkers used Chequered flags to identify themselves.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

1aY97 TIL that in 1924, a tunnel network was discovered underneath Washington D.C. Speculation behind the network's origins included a Confederate hideout or a liquor depot for bootleggers; they were actually dug by the Smithsonian Institute's entomologist Harrison G. Dyar, who 'did it for exercise'.
EZZX TIL that Whoopi Goldberg was in a movie where she played a leather-wearing police officer who had an overweight Tyrannosaurs Rex as a partner.
GYReG TIL that NASA has been launching jellyfish into space since the 90’s. Originally 2,478 were sent up and there were 60,000 orbiting Earth by the mission’s end 20 years later. The jellyfish that have returned reportedly ‘hate life on Earth.’
4O9R TIL a Finnish man who joined the army after Russia invaded in WW2 ended up shooting and killing 505 Soviet soldiers with a sniper and earned himself the nickname White Death. He also got shot in the face and survived. He died at the age of 96 (2002).
m1nYy TIL Teller, of Penn and Teller, legally changed his birth name to just "Teller". He is only one of a few people to have a mononymous US passport.