› added 12 years ago

192

TIL that DARPA developed an aircraft that reached speeds between Mach 17 and Mach 22

Read more militaryfactory.com

via reddit.com

7GOZ TIL that Vincent van Gogh put candles in his hat so he could paint at night, walked ridiculously fast, was a widow-chaser, and never once signed his paintings “Van Gogh”.
R55L4 TIL Pirate Richard Worley was the captain of the New York’s Revenge during the Golden Age of Piracy. After he captured his second ship, he named it the New York Revenge’s Revenge.
l7op1 TIL Arctic foxes strongly prefer to dive in a north-easterly direction. They are more likely to make a kill if they jumped along the invisible axis, especially when their prey was hidden by snow. If they pounced to the north-east, they killed on 73% of jumps compared with 18% in other directions .
Oae TIL: When the US Attorney-General asked for the power to prevent people on the terrorist watch list from buying guns, the US Congress answered with a firm “no”.
X7WE TIL: In 1943, WWII destroyer O'Bannon found itself too close to a surfaced Japanese submarine to aim its guns. US Sailors saved the ship by throwing potatoes at the Japanese crew running to the sub’s deck gun.