› added 5 years ago

137

TIL about the Grafton castaways, a real-life Gilligan's Island. Shipwrecked for 18 months in the Auckland islands in 1864, the 5 men lived in a thatched hut complete with glass windows and bookshelves. They built a forge to work metal, tanned leather, made soap from seashells, and even brewed beer.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

nWEdW TIL there are two asteroids named after the women who inspired the creation of Wonder Woman by William Moulton Marston; his wife, Elizabeth, and their polyamorous life partner, Olive.
8a9m8 TIL the US National Guard will air drop hay bales to stranded livestock that the farmers can’t get to.
9Y6or TIL that the word "National" in the "National Hockey League" refers to Canada, since for the first 7 years of play, all of the teams in the NHL were located in Canada.
pY7WA TIL the movement within the Republican party that supported Abraham Lincoln was called the Wide Awakes. A liberal youth movement known for their extravagant marches and parades as well as paramilitary activities.
8gmK TIL that the Infinite Monkey Theorem, stating that monkeys with typewriters and enough time could produce the entire works of Shakespeare, has been tried out in real life. They wrote five pages of S, slammed the keyboard with a stone and took a shit on it.