› added 9 years ago

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TIL the French Olympian Violette Morris was not only a lesbian, a heavy smoker, and part of the Gestapo, but also surgically removed her breasts so she could race cars more effectively.

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k5Dm TIL that J. R. R. Tolkien, in a letter to his son Christopher, referred to World War 2 as the “War of the Machines,” and remarked that machines would be “the only victor.” He was highly critical of the harsh tactics employed by either side during the conflict.
e0Lpb TIL The British WW1 'Unknown Warrior' was given a state funeral with full military honours, entombed with a medieval crusader's sword, accompanied by a guard of 100 Victoria Cross recipients, as well as 100 women, each of whom had lost her husband and all her sons in the war.
XE0oE TIL In 1780, approximately 5,500 French soldiers landed in Rhode Island to assist their American allies in operations against British-controlled New York City
WbYB TIL It has been argued that the “rib” in the story of Adam and Eve is actually a mistranslation of a Biblical Hebrew euphemism for baculum (A penis bone)
LkRRd TIL that Ivy League schools + sister schools used to take nude photos of all incoming freshmen, supposedly to gauge the severity of scoliosis and etc. The two lead psychologists then tried to use the data to justify their theories on body type and social hierarchy.