› added 4 months ago

17

TIL the Manchu people ruled China from 1636 to 1912, and their language, both pronunciation and script, resembles Mongolian.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

6EkJl TIL that what American businessman and astronomer Percival Lowell mistakenly thought were “spokes” on the surface of Venus were actually shadows of the blood vessels in his eyes cast on his retina, his telescope essentially functioning as a giant ophthalmoscope.
e05yk TIL In 1971, after LANSA flight 508 was struck by lightening above Peru, 17 year old Juliane Koepcke fell from the sky for two miles but survived. Despite extensive wounds, she walked for 11 days in the rainforest before finding a group of fishermen who helped transport her to a hospital.
lPQ1 TIL Google invented a fake town and placed it on Google Maps. It is believed that this was a form of DRM to let Google know who was copying their maps.
QNZKM TIL there’s a species of snail named after Steve Irwin. Its name is Crikey steveirwini.
MewrA TIL: While only 2 percent of Europeans lack the genes for smelly armpits, most East Asians and almost all Koreans lack this gene.