› added 1 year ago

39

TIL One of the first recorded rocket launchers is the "wasp nest" fire arrow launcher produced by the Ming dynasty in 1380. In Europe, rockets were also used in the same year at the Battle of Chioggia.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

4XY0g TIL for much of the 1800s in the UK, Sunday and Monday were the unofficial weekend, with Sunday for Church and Monday being adopted by workers as an unofficial holiday, mockingly called "St. Monday" (like a religious holiday). By the late 1800s, Monday became a workday, and Saturday a half workday.
7rJrb TIL that emoticon culture is different in the East ^.^ or ;_; and West :) because Easterners pay much greater attention on the eyes, whilst Westerners use the whole face to convey emotion.
VM9Lm TIL Charles Dickens' final novel, "The Mystery of Edwin Drood", was only half-finished when Dickens died. 3 years later, an American printer published a completed version which he claimed had been literally "ghost-written" by channeling Dickens' spirit - and it was praised by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle
16rQd TIL in 1963 a 16 year old sent a 4 question survey to 150 well-known authors (75 of which replied) in order to prove to his English tutor that writers don't intentionally add symbolic content to their books.
vP5VB TIL In 1976, 2 unarmed US officers were killed by North Korea for pruning a tree in the DMZ. A few days later, the US sent another heavily armed detail to complete the mission, backed this time by artillery, tanks and 27 helicopters while fighter jets and nuclear-armed B-52's circled overhead