› added 5 years ago

124

TIL if the sun were the size of a basketball the nearest star would be over 4000 miles away

Read more youtube.com

via reddit.com

GYaGg TIL when Winston Churchill started to use the V for Victory hand sign, he initially did so with the palm facing inward, unaware this was an offensive gesture in lower classes. He was basically flipping people off.
WkXOY TIL that the word "jazz" and the word "jizz" both originate from the word "jism" mean energy or strength.
6EGLW TIL that the Tarantula Nebula, a region in the Large Magellanic Cloud over 160,000 light years distant, contains the most luminous known star. The nebula’s luminosity is so great that if it were as close to Earth as the Orion Nebula, the Tarantula Nebula would cast shadows on the ground.
6Ew08 TIL Harriet Tubman, the most famous conductor on the Underground Railroad, relied on celestial navigation to guide herself and others along their route. They used the Big Dipper (which resembled a drinking gourd) to find the North Star, and they followed that beacon to freedom.
PYP8G TIL that none of the architecture on Euro banknotes is real, as the EU prohibited displaying any national monuments, so to not give greater prominence to one country over another. Hence, for the €5 note, a computer was used to scan multiple European bridges and combine them into one neutral design.