› added 12 years ago

89

TIL Volkswagen owns Audi, Bentley, Bugatti, Lamborghini, Porsche, and Ducati

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

VWJm TIL That the QWERTY keyboard came about because the original alphabetical order keyboard made the keys jam, & this way the most popular key combinations would be spaced apart so the keys won’t jam.
OGorX TIL Union General Philip Kearny devised the first unit insignia patches used in the U.S. Army in 1862, after mistakenly giving orders to soldiers not under his command. Afterward, his men wore a patch of red cloth to identify themselves as members of his unit. Other units quickly adopted the idea.
XrlX TIL that J.R.R. Tolkien was rejected for a Nobel Prize because of ‘poor storytelling’.
x6Ar1 TIL that we don’t know who named the Earth. Unlike other planets there are no records of how it got its name. The name Earth, and variations of it, date back 1000+ years.
EpEo TIL in 1997, amphetamine, methamphetamine, nicotine, and mescaline was found within two species of Texas acacia bushes.