› added 2 months ago

10

TIL that Isambard Kingdom Brunel’s steamship the "Great Eastern" (1858) could reach Australia without refuelling and carry up to 4000 passengers. It was so enormous that it was launched sideways into the Thames and remained the world’s largest ship by length, tonnage, and capacity for 40 years.

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VaMk TIL treadmills were originally a punishment used to harness human power on a giant wheel used to grind grains; hence the name “treadmill.”
d5ZB TIL the Japanese have a word (tsundoku [積ん読]) for the habit of buying a lot of books and never reading them.
0dQvj TIL that before Pope Clement VIII's endorsement of coffee, coffee was considered satanic by many people
8RQZ TIL the hull of the USS Arizona has been leaking oil since the attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941.
ne6rW TIL that 2,400-year old ruins where found on the northern coast of Greenland, more than 300 miles north of the current northernmost town in the world.