› added 1 year ago

61

TIL that the Norden Bombsight used by US Bomber aircraft in WWII cost $1.1 billion to research and produce, about half as much as the Manhattan Project and over a quarter of the cost of all B-17 bombers manufactured. While successfully precise in Stateside testing it was far less accurate in combat.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

LQGod TIL that when the British evacuated New York in 1783, they nailed the Union Flag to a greased flagpole to stop Americans raising their own. For over a century New Yorkers marked “Evacuation Day” on 25 November by re-enacting the pole-climb, a holiday once bigger than Thanksgiving.
Br9ee TIL the Culinary Institute of America was founded by two women, Frances L. Roth and Katherine Angell, in 1946. They created the school to compensate for the shortage of European chefs coming to the US due to WWII. Their goal was to train a new generation of American chefs to fill these roles.
5VLRR TIL that most dinosaurs aren't kosher. Researchers analyzed Jewish rules to find out that a Jewish time traveler would have difficulties finding kosher meat among dinos.
BrMrr TIL An acre was historically the amount of land tillable by one man behind one ox in one day. Poor farming technologies and the need for farmland to be close to the river means that acres were traditionally long and narrow.
YpbnP TIL Philips has a record label subsidiary. One artist that it produced for was Elton John’s singles from 1968 to 1970. Another artist was The Singing Nun’s “Dominique” which played frequently in the US anthology series “American Horror Story: Asylum”.