› added 4 years ago

59

TIL of the British navy captain John Perkins. Born in Jamaican obscurity he distinguished himself in the British navy. Allowed to captain his own ship he eventually became one of the most successful Georgian Era navy commanders. He is noteworthy as sources describe him as being mulatto or black.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

QJjRa TIL about the Abbeville Institute, an institution of Southern professors that extol the virtues of the Confederacy. Their leader is tied to the League of the South, a white nationalist group.
OGnA1 TIL that Puffball Mushrooms, which have spores the when flicked turn into a puff of smoke, has the Latin name <i> Lycoperdon </i>, literally meaning “wolf fart”.
VMXAm TIL there is a crocodile named "Gustave" who allegedly killed as many as 300 people
VM7LG TIL We don't really know how Shakespeare spelled his own name, and nor, in fact, did he.
y7Op TIL When Kim Jong-un was a student in Switzerland his identity was kept secret. He was registered as the son of an employee of the North Korea embassy. His alias was “Chol-pak”. Apparently his grades were poor and he enjoyed playing basketball.