› added 11 years ago

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TIL that astronauts in the ISS “do their laundry” by having new clothes shipped to them in an unmanned spacecraft that then has the old clothes put into it and is burnt up upon reentry.

Read more nasa.gov

via reddit.com

4wYo TIL Greenland got its name because the Viking who discovered it was banished from Iceland and felt lonely in his new homeland, so he named and advertised it as the lush ‘Greenland’ to attract settlers, despite the fact that it was actually a completely barren and largely uninhabitable land
AX5a TIL that the Queen of Denmark illustrated the artwork for the Danish edition of The Lord of the Rings
VMxx4 TIL the first female admiral in the modern world was Keumalahayati from Aceh Sultanate (now part of Indonesia) in Southeast Asia. She led their defense against the Dutch Navy attacks that killed Cornelis de Houtman in September 1599, who commanded the first Dutch Expedition to East Indies.
vPp4L TIL that in 1958, Burma-Shave offered a "free trip to Mars" for sending in 900 empty jars. A grocery store manager, Arliss French, took it literally and collected all 900. To save face, Burma-Shave sent him, fully dressed as an astronaut, to Moers, Germany (of which they felt was pronounced Mars).
78WxX TIL that Julius Caesar had a comb-over which he was self-conscious about