› added 2 hours ago

TIL of King Henry I, known as “the Fat,” who is not known for much except for his great girth. He has been considered a “colourless personality whose reign saw significant events in which he apparently played no leading part.’

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

8e7L8 TIL in 2005 the US Navy conducted a test called SinkEx on how an enemy might sink one of its Supercarriers could. After four weeks of firing, the carrier remained and had to be sunk by hand-placed explosives
ERRX TIL the song “I Want a Monster to Be My Friend” from Sesame Street was removed from the show after a mother complained about the lines “If I make friends with a friendly monster, I’ll let him bounce me on his knee. I’ll let him do whatever he wants to especially if he’s bigger than me.”
x66X0 TIL that for a brief period in the 1920s, Mongolia was ruled by a German dictator who intended to create a pan-eurasian monarchy spanning from China to Europe
N7wv6 TIL of Martine Rothblatt, a lawyer and Ph.D in medical ethics who founded Sirius XM satellite radio, worked on the Human Genome Project, designed an electric helicopter for organ delivery, is a licensed pilot, and is transgender.
8e9xV TIL that in the 20th century, native New Guineans were devastated by an incurable fatal degenerative brain disease called Kuru, "the shaking death." It was caused by eating cooked brain tissue during ritual cannibalism. Victims also laughed uncontrollably.