› added 3 years ago

82

TIL of the United States Army Pigeon Service whose pigeons were trained for communication and reconnaissance purposes during WWII. During the war, the force consisted of 54,000 war pigeons and over 90% of their messages were received successfully (with some earning medals for saving Allied lives).

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

VlaQ TIL At Harvard, Neil Degrasse Tyson was criticized by a fellow African American economist major who told him that “Blacks in America do not have the luxury of your intellectual talents being spent on astrophysics”.
p8Mye TIL If you have an IGA near you and have noticed how localized or regional the offerings are its becasue they're not a chain store like most other grocers. All IGAs are independently owned and run solely by their independent owner.. There are locations in 30 different countries!
m1ndO TIL Humans can’t walk in a straight line without looking at something. If blindfolded, we gradually walk in a circle. It seems like our brain needs a reference point to stay on track!
PYNKn TIL about two faced "Janus" cats, named after Roman god who had two faces; one looking into the past, the other the future. They don't usually survive more than a day, but a 2 faced cat named Frank and Louie defied the odds and lived for 15yrs, even appearing in the Guinness World Records book 2006.
6d6Z TIL Astronomers discovered a planet which rains glass sideways, giving it a blue hue.