› added 4 years ago

128

TIL about the Blair Mountain Revolt, the largest armed uprising in the US post-Civil War. Thousands of workers upset at company town policies and poor conditions in the mines staged a mass strike in West Virginia, leading to the President ordering the army and airforce in. 133 died, over 900 jailed.

0V7M TIL that the heated water in the barrel of the Vickers machine gun was sometimes used to make tea for British soldiers during World War I.
5V0jB TIL Pythagoras was a vegetarian. He believed that killing and eating animals sullied the soul and prevented union with a higher form of reality. Additionally, he felt that eating meat was unhealthy and made humans wage war against one another.
e0pVn TIL for Aprils fools in 2014 Blizzard announced a game called "Blizzard Outcasts" which was played with a controller called the "Fight Stick". The "Fight Stick" had 32 buttons, an in-built credit card reader and an ergonomic design.
ADp8B TIL that uncooked spaghetti always break into more than two parts, a curious fact that already baffled Nobel-prize winning physicist Richard Feynman. The riddle was only solved last year by scientists who managed to make spaghetti snap into only two parts with a trick.
WDn9 TIL: Putting candles on birthday cakes dates back to the Ancient Greeks, who often burned candles as offerings to their many gods & goddesses. It was their way to pay tribute to the Greek moon goddess, Artemis. Round cakes symbolized the moon. Candles were added to represent the reflected moonlight.