› added 2 years ago

73

TIL about "Edison's Conquest of Mars" - an 1898 novel where Thomas Edison kicked alien ass in an unauthorized sequel to "The War of the Worlds." Among its MANY sci-fi inventions: First use of spacesuits, alien abductions, space wars, asteroid mining, and aliens building the Pyramids.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

epQe4 TIL the term Bisexual was originally used in the 1940s-70s to mean something similar to how non-binary or genderfluid were used today. The modern meaning only gained prominence in the 1970s.
d8VPr TIL the Miwok (N California) played a game similar to soccer. Played by both sexes, girls were allowed to do anything, including kicking the ball & picking it up & running with it, while boys were only allowed to use their feet, but if a girl was holding the ball he could pick her up and carry her
6EVYW TIL The Florida panhandle once accounted for 2/3 of lost limb claims in the U.S. due the common practice of taking out multiple insurance policies and then maiming oneself
7rlVr TIL Otto Skorzeny was an unrepentant Nazi, a senior SS officer, who remained involved in right-wing causes his whole life, later it’s emerged that he was also an agent and hitman for Mossad, the Israeli intelligence service.
GYErj TIL a statue of Penn State head coach Joe Paterno was unveiled in 2001, alongside a wall with a quote from Paterno- "I hope they write I made Penn State a better place, not just that I was a good football coach." It was removed in 2012 following the Penn State child sex abuse scandal.