› added 10 years ago

88

TIL that a Dutch athlete was banned from competing (for life) after refusing a sex test in 1950. After her death in 2007, an autopsy discovered a Y chromosome in her DNA, suggesting she was a genetic mosaic…

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

kJBve TIL Somalia has the largest Camel population at an estimated six million within its borders and twice as many camels as Sudan.
m15Zp TIL there is a very small (9-inch-tall) aluminum pyramid on the very top of the Washington Monument, because at the time it was completed, aluminum was considered more precious than gold or silver
WkpAX TIL that in 1966 a computer scientist wrote a program, called ELIZA, intended to demonstrate the superficiality of communication between people and machines. Instead it came to be seen as a therapy program and fooled a remarkable number of people into believing that the computer had feelings.
4YB6 TIL of Airforce Cadet Matthew La Porte who was studying at Virginia Tech when the shootings took place. He barricaded the door in an attempt to protect his classmates and when the shooter broke through he charged him and was shot seven times while his classmates escaped.
VMJ40 TIL the Jacobite Earl of Nithsdale was sentenced to the axe. His wife paid a final visit to the Tower of London, accompanied by two maids. They dressed him in women's clothes, a headdress and caked his face in make-up to hide his long beard. The transvestite Lord then simply walked out of his cell