› added 9 years ago

62

TIL: After WWII, the British sold off captured Enigma machines to third world countries, who still believed it to be secure, so that they could spy on them.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

0dw7A TIL Jeannette Rankin of Montana was the first female elected to Congress (1916). A suffragist who helped get the 19th Amendment passed, was a staunch pacifist, opposing WW1, WW2, and was out marching in protest against Vietnam when she was 61 years old. A badass.
OwA7 TIL during WWII the British govt would issue city-wide blackouts to make it harder for the German’s to hit targets during night raids. Armed with new, secret radar technology, the British spread the myth that eating carrots improved eyesight to explain their newfound success in defending in the dark
DQA9p TIL that your cat's "zoomies" are actually called "frenetic random activity periods" or FRAP for short.
MB4B TIL that livestock farming generates over 18% of the planet’s greenhouse gas emissions, where as all the world’s cars, trains, planes and boats account for a combined 13%.
v1VRL TIL the first Asian Americans to fight on behalf of the US were Filipinos, referred to by General Andrew Jackson as "Manilamen" during the War of 1812. They were from a small fishing town called Saint Malo in Louisiana, which is also the first Filipino Settlement in the US.