› added 5 months ago

18

TIL Gino Bartali was a multiple pre WW2 Grand Tour winner and almost gave up cycling after his brother died whilst racing. During the war he used his fame and prestige to aid Jewish families elude capture. The BBC attributes him as saying "Some medals are made to hang on the soul, not the jacket."

Y7mVx TIL about Quasi-stars, aka black hole stars, where the star is supported not by fusion, but the energy of a black hole consuming matter. They hypothetically existed in the early universe.
dpl9 TIL that in 1981 IBM asked Microsoft for a 16-bit operating software. Microsoft didn’t have one and didn’t want to build one, so they spent $75,000 on someone else’s software, tinkered with it a bit and MS-DOS was born.
d8XAQ TIL about Vasili Arkhipov, a Soviet Naval officer who refused to launch a nuclear torpedo during the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis, averting all-out nuclear war with the United States
x6V1w TIL about archeological Tells. Neolithic human settlement sites that grew into large (some over 100 feet tall) hills due to the people there discarding remains into the ground below, building on top of discarded buildings, and the collection of sediment/materials from everyday living.
womjE TIL: A key factor of animals belonging to the same species is their ability to produce fertile offspring together. So a Great Dane and a Chihuahua could produce fertile offspring, and a horse and a donkey can have a baby together but their offspring will always be infertile.