› added 5 years ago

72

TIL about Svetlana Alliluyeva, daughter of Joseph Stalin who defected to the U.S. in 1967.

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Yadr TIL that in the great San Francisco earthquake of 1906, three men were caught alive on the roof of a hotel that was ablaze. Rather than see the men fall and be burned alive, a nearby military officer ordered his men to shoot them.
xVnX5 TIL honey bees are not and have never been on the endangered species list
Jod4 TIL there are more nuclear reactors powering ships (mostly military) than there are generating electric power in commercial power plants worldwide.
1Gv8 TIL The definition for ‘literally’ now includes 'in effect; in substance; very nearly; virtually,’ which literally changes the definition of literally. The phrase 'He was literally drowning in his own tears’ is grammatically correct, even if the person isn’t, in reality, drowning in their own tears.
PYO0g TIL in 1941, when a General asked Winston Churchill for more men to man Antiaircraft guns, Churchill replied "No, I can’t spare any men, you’ll have to use women." Mary Churchill (18), Winston Churchill's youngest daughter was among the first to join and rose to the rank of Junior Commander in 1944.