› added 9 years ago

127

TIL that knots as a unit of measuring speed came ships throwing overboard a line with a board attached and counting how many knots passed through their fingers in 30 seconds.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

GYgDj TIL : The movie “Moana” was changed to “Oceania” in Italy because there was a porn star named Moana already in Italy
5YOaD TIL the first photograph to include a human being was almost an accident. Because the image required a long exposure, all the people, carriages, and other moving things disappeared from the scene -- except the the man who happened to stay still during the shot, getting his shoes shined.
R7oKj TIL a disco arrangement of "Star Wars Theme and Cantina Band" by Meco is the only instrumental single to reach Platinum status by the Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA), having sold over 2 million units
jMXa TIL that in WW2 JFK swam 4 hours to safety while towing an injured crewman with his teeth after his ship was destroyed. (In the Greatest Display of Badassedry Section)
lxRG TIL in 1350 when bubonic plague struck England, the Scots took the opportunity to invade the country. But instead, the Scottish army caught the disease, was routed by the English and the fleeing army inadvertently spread the plague across Scotland