› added 12 years ago

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TIL that in 2012, the Smithsonian officially recognized video games as an art form and had an exhibit to “comprehensively examine the evolution of video games as an artistic medium.”

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via reddit.com

4XvGa TIL of Ulugh Beg Observatory from 1420. Their hypothesis of a stellar year was rather accurate, at 365 days, 6 hours, 10 minutes and 8 seconds, only about 1 minute longer than the modern calculations
X0kej TIL obstetric forceps saved more lives than any other [medical] instrument
n6Or TIL that possibly the most iconic of French foods, the Croissant, is actually Austrian.
KYMLw TIL Anvil firing is the practice of exploding an anvil into the air. Anvils are typically fired as a celebration, be it to honor St. Clement's (the Patron Saint of blacksmiths) or in a 21 anvil salut as found in New Westminster, British Columbia.
Y77Kd TIL that NASA planned to send astronauts to Mars in 1981 using Nerva nuclear rockets but congress cut NASA's funding and Nixon cancelled the Nerva project entirely in 1973, causing Nasa to focus on the development of the Space Shuttle instead