› added 10 years ago

92

TIL the polish mathematicians were the first to break the enigma code. Not the British.

Read more codesandciphers.org.uk

via reddit.com

LkmLd TIL that among the 198 players drafted ahead of Tom Brady in the 2000 NFL draft was a Norwegian shot putter/defensive tackle/boxer.
kOQQm TIL Lois Duncan the author of "I Know What You Did Last Summer" and many other teen horror and suspense novels in the 70's and 80's had a teenage daughter that became a victim of an unsolved murder in 1989. Duncan essentially stopped writing in her genre and the murder is still unsolved today.
JY4GB TIL that the football huddle was invented at Gallaudet University (a school for the deaf) to stop opponents from reading their hand signs and knowing the play.
0kYy TIL of “RISUG”; a cheap, 100% effective contraceptive for men, that lasts for 8-10 years without side effects, but has yet to reach the public due to lack of funding and volunteers.
KOj7w TIL Voltaire's joke that the Holy Roman Empire (HRE) was "neither holy, nor Roman, nor an empire" was mostly true. The center of the Church at the time was actually the Vatican, the HRE's people were mostly Germanic and not Roman, and the nation was never truly unified at any point in its history.