› added 8 months ago

20

TIL that during WWII, the British considered building aircraft carriers out of ice. The project, called Project Habakkuk, aimed to create massive, unsinkable carriers from a special mixture of ice and wood pulp called Pykrete.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

xVPJ5 TIL that while filming "Star Wars: The Force Awakens", actor Oscar Isaac specifically requested that his character Poe Dameron be a native of the planet Yavin 4. This is because the scenes on Yavin 4 in the original trilogy were filmed in Guatemala, where Isaac is actually from.
9wKjr TIL that when boxer Sonny Liston became world heavyweight, he had prepared a speech for the crowd he was told would be greeting him at the airport. No crowd turned up, and this is put at the point that Liston realised he would never be accepted as champion.
e0kZJ TIL a 34-yr-old French-UK woman named Emma Perrier was catfished by a 53-yr-old UK man who was using a 35-yr-old Turkish model's photos. She tracked down the real model, Adem Guzel, they hit it off via FaceTime; about a year later, he flew to London and they became a couple.
69EPQ TIL that Coca-Cola was originally made with Coca leaves and Kola nuts, which are real things. The soft drink likely now contains neither.
mxR1E TIL of Theys Eluay, a leader of the peaceful papuan independence movement who was assassinated by indonesian special forces in 2001. When asked about the murder, the indonesian defense minister called the hitmen 'heroes'