› added 7 years ago

1592

TIL the British Army developed a salute with the palm facing outwards. The Royal Navy instead adopted a version with the palm facing downwards, as many men working on ships had dirty palms and to display them was disrespectful. The United States Armed Forces would later use the Royal Navy's version.

QN4ra TIL about the Thalidomide scandal in the 1950s and 1960s, which resulted in thousands of children being born with severe birth defects after their mothers took the drug during pregnancy, leading to increased regulation of pharmaceuticals worldwide.
Xy8X TIL there is a professional Indian cricketer named ‘Napoleon Einstein’ and when asked about his unusual name, said: “We don’t believe in God. In our family, we’re rationalists. Other people are named Krishna and Ram after Gods, so we were named Einstein and Napoleon after great people.”
Ae4o TIL given a choice between alcohol-soaked food and normal food, male fruit flies that have recently been sexually-rejected by females will consume four times more alcohol-soaked food than the males that mated successfully.
nWwJd TIL of Edgar Nollner, who, upon his death in 1999, was the longest surviving musher of The Serum Run - a mission to deliver diphtheria antitoxin by dog sled to an Alaskan town of Nome. During his later years, Edgar was married twice, had 23 children and over 200 grandchildren.
8abwa TIL that instead of doing a traditional press conference to talk about his Super Bowl XLI show, Prince put on a mini-concert instead