› added 10 months ago

33

TIL that the Union Jack isn’t Great Britain’s legal flag and is only used as such due to precedent.

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via reddit.com

VMDGp TIL the oldest existing analog computer was created around 100 BC and recovered from a shipwreck in 1901 after spending almost 2000 years underwater.
wL04P TIL that figs are carnivorous
bvZa TIL Richard Owen (who created the word Dinosaur) exploited his crippled peer Gideon Mantell, by claiming ownership and renaming his discoveries. After Mantels suicide, Owen wrote his obituary calling Mantell a mediocre Scientist. He then had Mantells spine removed, pickled, and stored.
OXQ7 TIL a mass grave of 155 women was found in a Magdalene laundry. These were prison like Irish Catholic institutions for ‘fallen’ women.
NXAwE TIL About the Arlington Ladies. A volunteer organization, usually made up of the wives of General officers, their mission is to attend the funeral service of any US service member being buried at Arlington National Cemetery.