› added 2 years ago

39

TIL construction of the Manchester Ship Canal began in 1887 and took six years and cost £15 million at the time.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

jNeDQ TIL, in the 1990s, USAF Developed MARAUDER, a Plasma Toroid Rail Gun That Theoretically Could Fire Plasma Projectiles at 10,000 km/s, 3% the Speed of Light. In the Mid-1990s Results Were Classified Due its Success.
X04yD TIL that the actor who played Darth Vader, David Prowse, was banned from attending official Star Wars events because he leaked too many plot details.
ADVBw TIL scientists give funny names to genetically variant fruit flies; (Ken & Barbie): flies that fail to develop external genitalia, (Maggie): Flies that fail to develop past a certain stage & are named after Maggie from the Simpsons, (Cheap Date): A fly that expresses high sensitivity to alcohol.
5Vlp TIL there are only two words that end in -gry. Angry and hungry.
Y70eZ TIL of "Looking Glass", a 24 hour a day US military operation that lasted for 29 years