› added 1 year ago

41

TIL that Portland cement's name is derived from its similarity to Portland stone, a type of building stone quarried on the Isle of Portland in Dorset, England

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

OGkN6 TIL the first movie about the sinking of the Titanic premiered only 31 days after she sank, and was written by an actress who survived the sinking, who also starred in it. She later had a nervous breakdown and never acted again.
PLJg TIL, one man, Stanislav Petrov, effectively saved the world from nuclear war by not telling his superiors of his system reporting a nuclear attack by the US. The system had malfunctioned.
D1y8v TIL that part of the reason Francis Bellamy was asked to write the Pledge of Allegiance to the American Flag was to market American Flags to schools.
KQgE TIL French Emperor Napoleon wore poison around his neck in case of defeat. When he finally used it in 1814, it had lost its strength and only made him painfully ill.
NX0w8 TIL of Paul Frampton, a Physicist at UNC Chapel Hill who was arrested for transporting cocaine after being catfished by a drug cartel pretending to be a young Czech bikini model.