› added 6 years ago

67

TIL AIDS was originally called GRID or "Gay Related Immune Deficiency". In the early days of the disease it was also known as "Gay Cancer"

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

epa14 TIL Apollo 17 geologist astronaut Harrison Schmitt served in the U.S. Senate, becoming the only "natural scientist" in the Senate since Thomas Jefferson was Vice-President. Schmitt presently is Adjunct Professor of Engineering, University of Wisconsin-Madison, teaching "Resources from Space"
gMAXD TIL that the most successful female sniper in history, Lyudmila Pavlichenko, couldn't pull the trigger on her first kill, until she saw a German shooting a young Russian soldier. She went on to record 309 confirmed kills in WWII.
YYV7 TIL MIT found that the United States has enough geothermal resources to supply for at least 2,000 times its annual consumption of primary energy
ELN7 TIL Roman Emperor Caligula once ordered his guards to throw an entire section of the audience into an arena during the intermission to be eaten by the wild beasts because there were no prisoners to be used and he was bored.
OoKW4 TIL that when flatworms go to space, they can grow two heads. Usually a flatworm will regrow its head and tail after they are cut off, but one with its head and tail removed regrew two heads and a second mouth. (The flatworm's mouth is located on its belly.)