› added 6 years ago

1216

TIL that after her husband was executed by the King of France, Jeanne de Clisson took to piracy and formed the "Black Fleet" - ships painted in black with red sails that would attack French warships.

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XYZk TIL that actress Hedy Lamarr was also a prolific inventor. One of her inventions allowed for guided torpedoes in WWII. But because the Navy wasn’t receptive to ideas coming outside the military, it wasn’t implemented during the war. Her idea went to later be basis for Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, & CDMA.
oR5rW TIL a 2007 Consumer Reports survey of 1,057 participants found that on average American women owned 19 pairs of shoes (although they only wore 4 pairs regularly), with 15% owning 30+ pairs. In addition, 43% said they had been at least moderately injured by shoes before; 8% reported sprains or breaks
awjpZ TIL of catastrophism, a 19th century geological school of thought which saw the large fossil record as evidence proving the existence of a world previous to ours, destroyed by sudden natural catastrophes such as great floods and the rapid formation of major mountain chains.
PmKw TIL that inside the conqueror Tamerlane’s tomb in modern day Uzbekistan, it read “Whoever opens my tomb, shall unleash an invader more terrible than I.” Two days after the exhumation of his tomb, the Nazis invaded the USSR.
69pNm TIL because George Kennedy was the only actor in all four Airport movies, he was offered a role in its parody film, Airplane. He turned it down, because he "didn't want to kill off his Airport cash cow."