› added 5 years ago

110

TIL A slave, Nearest Green, taught Jack Daniels how to make whiskey and was is now credited as the first master distiller

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

GYLBN TIL During WW2 British prisoners captured by the Japanese were not allowed to sing, in an effort to stop the morale of the prisoners from getting to high, so they whistled instead, an example of this can be seen in the film "Bridge over the River Kwai".
kOJeE All muscles are capable of cramping, but the ones farthest away from your spinal cord—in your feet and lower legs, for example—tend to be the most vulnerable to seizing up. The long, spindly nerve cells that run from the spinal cord to the toes are especially prone to damage. The prevalence of nerve damage increases with age, so the elderly are among the most common victims.
ZknR TIL that Ada Lovelace, a female English mathematician and writer, wrote an algorithm in the mid 1800s designed to be carried out by a machine. As a result, she is often regarded as the first computer programmer.
xvE5 TIL in WWII Japan used underwater manned suicide torpedos called Kaiten to destroy American ships. If they were successful, they blew up. If they missed, they sank to the bottom of the ocean.
xVdxw TIL the Soviet Union captured the first images of the far side of the moon in 1959 using radiation-resistant film recovered from a downed US spy balloon. This technology was essential to protect the film from radiation in space, and the Soviets were unable to produce their own at the time.