› added 12 years ago

158

TIL that during the 16th century, Western Ireland was under the control of Pirate Gráinne Ní Mháille. After years of fighting against England, Queen Elizabeth agreed to personally meet with her. Gráinne showed up with a dagger, refused to bow, and threw a noblewoman’s handkerchief into a fire

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

R5gm4 TIL that Mitsutaka Uchikoshi, a Japanese hiker survived 24 days on a mountain without food or water by going into a state of hibernation. Doctors believe this is the first known case of a human going into hibernation
o5Z7 TIL Yogendra Singh Yadav, a soldier of the Indian army, climbed up a vertical, snow-covered cliff face while under machine gun and rocket fire. Despite taking three bullets, he managed to finish the climb, grenade a bunker and then kill four enemy soldiers in hand to hand combat.
woAP7 TIL about Charles Dickens’ son Frank, who joined the predecessors of Canada’s iconic Mounties after failing the British Foreign Office exams, losing his officer’s commission in the Bengal Mounted Police, and “squandering his inheritance on poor investments and disssipated living."
RvY4 TIL: The world’s first electronic digital wristwatch was introduced in 1972 and cost $2,100.00 (about $11,400 today) and by the end of the 70’s digital watches were being sold for $10.00.
Zx1a TIL the North Korean government is one of the largest counterfeiters of U.S. $50 and $100-dollar bills, dubbed “superdollars,” as they are so close to the real thing that they’ve been referred to as “just U.S dollars not made by the U.S. government.”