› added 10 months ago

37

TIL that during the inter-war era, it was the British and not the Germans, who were the world leaders in tank design and the organisation of armoured forces.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

J1Lwm TIL whale oil was used in transmissions until its ban in 1972, when less than 1 million transmissions failed each year; without whale oil, yearly transmission failures became more than 8 million by 1975. This led to thousands of transmission shops opening across the USA in the late 1970s and ’80s
bVjZ TIL The average baseball game has about 18 minutes of action and is 90% standing around
RjXl TIL R. Lee Ermey, the former US Marine who played the drill instructor in Stanley Kubrick’s “Full Metal Jacket”, actually wrote 50% of his own dialogue in the film - “especially the insults”
wor9E TIL that the NFL made a commitee to falsify information to cover up brain damage in their players
Z8K6G TIL that in 2006, the brakes failed on Joaquin Phoenix's car in Hollywood, and he flipped off the road. He was found by Werner Herzog, who stopped Phoenix from lighting a cigarette as gasoline leaked into the car cabin. Herzog broke the back windscreen, helped Phoenix out, and then went home.