› added 12 years ago

775

TIL that just before boarding the vessel that he was attacking, Blackbeard would take slow burning fuse matches and, with bright red ribbon, tie them in his hair and beard. When lit, these smoking matches gave him the appearance of the Devil.

Read more latinamericanhistory.about.com

via reddit.com

7raXP TIL of the Hathaway Effect: When actress Anne Hathaway is trending on social media, Wall Street algorithms buy Berkshire Hathaway stock, causing the price to spike.
QNjeX TIL that since 2007, at least 20 detached human feet have been found in the region of British Columbia/Washington State and nobody really knows why
WrdB TIL that the Church of Scientology is a corporation, and the actual “church” is just an arm of the corporation. They also have another arm called “Golden Era Productions” tasked with producing propaganda and conducting worldwide marketing campaigns for Scientology.
0wl0L TIL that since 2006, Antarctic research stations representing countries all over the world have participated in their own film festival. Each station has 48 hours to produce a 5-minute film that includes 5 different elements: a sound, an object, a quote, a celebrity, and an action.
7B9b TIL that 170 people were able to guess the number of jelly beans in a jar accurate to .1% when their answers were averaged. Out of 4520 beans, the average guess was 4524. The phenomena is known as wisdom of the crowd.