› added 11 years ago

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TIL there is a free online library with over a million ebooks available for “borrowing”

Read more openlibrary.org

via reddit.com

J8Dj TIL the term the “grandfather clause” comes from US segregation laws, wherein tests designed to disenfranchise African-Americans would also disenfranchise poor Southern whites as well. The workaround was that people were allowed to vote if their grandfathers had been allowed to as well.
Z8yPY TIL that a holocaust denial group offered $50,000 to anyone who could prove that gas chambers were used to intentionally kill people at Auschwitz. They were forced by a judge to pay that money, and an additional $40,000, to Auschwitz survivor Mel Mermelstein who provided proof of that very fact.
4yYX TIL Rick Astley was knighted by the Queen of England earlier this year and should now be referred to as “Sir Rick Astley”
7yVp TIL Phil Mickelson, the most famous left-handed golfer of all time (his nickname is “Lefty”) is actually right-handed. The reason he golfs left-handed is because he learned to swing by facing his father, a right-handed golfer, and mirroring his movements.
d8n8E TIL that the first full size radio-operated military drone was developed in 1935 in the form of the de Havilland DH-82B Queen Bee. Originally developed by the Royal Navy for target practice, it could take off and land without human operation and more than 400 were constructed.