› added 7 years ago

667

An extraordinary collection of images from Burns Archive shows the extent to which gas masks were promoted as an essential part of everyday life in the early 20th century.

It had been 20 years since the end of World War I, when chlorine gas—and, later, mustard gas—had first been used. The estimates of total casualties from this form of chemical warfare are staggering: 88,000 dead and 1,200,000 injured. With war once again on the horizon, Britain and continental Europe began taking early precautions. In 1938, the British government issued 35 million “General Civilian Respirators”. Everyone from ballerinas to surgeons were encouraged to wear the masks.

W7B1A TIL of the Children's crusade in 1212 when thousands of children went on a march to the holy land believing their innocence alone would peacefully bring it back to Christianity. None reached Jerusalem, with many even being sold into slavery by Italian merchants.
rNYRx TIL that the 1976 NFL team, The Tampa Bay Buccaneers, by season's end, had 21 players on injury reserve. Of those 21 players, 18 of them required knee surgery.
6eVJ TIL in the short scene in Fight Club when Brad Pitt and Edward Norton are drunk and hitting golf balls, they really are drunk, and the golf balls are sailing directly into the side of the catering truck.
VMePZ TIL according to Māori legend, Split Apple Rock in New Zealand's Abel Tasman National Park, was split by two gods fighting to possess it. They broke it in half to compromise. Scientists believe that water seeped into a rock crevice and froze during an ice age, expanding and thus splitting the stone.
p8GXZ TIL that when Charles Darwin was a teenager, his father told him "You care for nothing but shooting, dogs, and rat-catching, and you will be a disgrace to yourself and all your family."