› added 10 years ago

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TIL that Khawla Bint Al Azwar was a muslim female warrior who disguised herself as a man until her identity was revealed, then she was given command of an army to attack the Byzantines.

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via reddit.com

wa7Y TIL Isaac Newton was so obsessed with turning base metal to gold that samples of his hair showed mercury levels up to 40 times higher than average. This is considered to be the reason he went mad in his later years.
v5lx TIL Benjamin Guggenheim, heir to mining magnate Meyer Guggenheim, dressed in his finest suit, had a glass of brandy and smoked a cigar as the Titanic sank. “Tell [my wife] I played the game out straight to the end. No woman shall be left aboard this ship because Ben Guggenheim was a coward.”
j6ANQ TIL that the Maillard reaction, which is known to cause the browning on cooked food, is also responsible for the smell of percolating coffee and the difference between the yeasty smell of bread dough and a "fresh-baked" smell of loaf out of the oven.
awXxM TIL The identity of the blonde female co-lead in the Men Without Hats video for Safety Dance (her character Jenny arc'd through 2 other MWH videos) was kept secret for decades when it was disclosed she was played by Brit Louise Court who'd later become a journalist and editor of Cosmopolitan UK
jRDR TIL in 1970 a protest group broke into a draft board office by slipping in during the day and taping a note on the door: “Please don’t lock this door tonight.” They returned that night to find that the staff had obediently left the office open.