› added 8 years ago

70

TIL Douglas Bader was a legless flying ace (RAF) in WW2 . His success was partly because of his having no legs; pilots pulling high “g-forces” in combat often “blacked out” as the flow of blood from the brain to other body parts, usually the legs. As he had no legs he could remain conscious longer.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

aNX9 TIL that the city of Huescar forgot they were at war with Denmark until a local historian found the declaration 172 years later. No shots were fired during the war.
6Em5Y TIL I learned that the boy with the spoon from matrix was credited "Spoon boy"
xxZb TIL that Johnny Rotten of the Sex Pistols auditioned for the band by singing along to an Alex Cooper record. Guitarist Steve Jones later said that “Rotten looked the part with his green hair, but he couldn’t sing. Then again, we couldn’t play, so it was okay.”
4XMEJ TIL of Franceska Mann, a Jewish ballerina who was sent to Auschwitz. She reportedly stripped down to nothing but high heels outside of a gas chamber, then stabbed an SS guard in the eye with a heel, grabbed his pistol, shot and killed another SS guard, and wounded a third.
5X0p TIL that in the Labyrinth movie all the “juggling” done by David Bowie was actually another guy standing behind him with his arms through his cloak.