› added 1 week ago

3

TIL the Android operating system almost failed to release due to a lack of early funding. With the team facing eviction, Steve Perlman gave $10,000 cash and an undisclosed amount for seed funding, saving the team. Perlman refused a stake, saying he only did it because he "believed in the thing."

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

OGBoX TIL that the German battleship Tirpitz's route along Norway can still be traced by trees along the coast that were damaged by artificial fog.
eWmL TIL Pennsylvania is spelled “Pensylvania” on the Liberty Bell
8N54 TIL: Sugar used to be sold in loaves, and you’d cut it with something called “sugar nips”
neGx9 TIL that after the 2015 terror attacks in Paris, the German football team was advised not to leave the stadium they were playing in due to threats on their hotel, so they slept in the stadium on mattresses. The French team they had just played against stayed the night with them, out of solidarity.
R7vZj TIL that a loofah sponge is actually a type of cucumber and not from the ocean.