› added 6 years ago

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TIL the term "paint the town red" entered useage after an English town was literally painted red by a drunk gang.

Read more phrases.org.uk

via reddit.com

dDDW8 TIL about the Great Attractor which it was previously thought the Milky Way was moving towards at 1,342,162 mph, but now the Great Atractor AND the Milky Way are both moving towards Shapely Supercluster. Observation of these areas is blocked by the Milky Way for the next 100 million years.
kJGag TIL that US Election Day was chosen as a Tuesday in November in 1845 to making voting as easy as possible for the American 19th century farmer. After the Fall harvest, before the Winter snow, with enough time for travel to the polling place and back home without missing Sunday Church.
Wp9N TIL that only 5 human beings remain alive who were born in the 1800s.
Egb1P TIL, in 1940 RAF pilot Victor Ekins was shot in the stomach and had his plane disabled by the bullet. When he bailed out, he coincidentally landed in the middle of a Canadian Ambulance Unit
x61Eb TIL that the Wright Brothers' 1903 Flyer was so unstable, it was virtually uncontrollable by anybody besides the brothers, who had trained on their 1902 glider.