› added 5 years ago

255

TIL Over 16 million animals served in World War One. Both sides had large cavalries, camels were used in desert campaigns, dogs and pigeons carried messages, canaries were used to detect gas, and cats and dogs were trained to hunt rats in the trenches. Various animals were used as mascots too.

Read more iwm.org.uk

via reddit.com

epaNJ TIL “Avocado” is a modification of the Spanish word aguacate, which derives from the Nahuatl (Aztec) word āhuacatl, which means “testicle.”
xddo TIL 2005 was statistically one of the worse hurricane season in history recorded with 15 hurricanes and 23 tropical storm causing $150 billion in damage.
Eg8rW TIL that the record for the longest gap between release and reaching number one on the Billboard charts was set by the Mariah Carey song "All I Want for Christmas Is You", which first reached number one in the United States 25 years after its release.
Kb7B TIL A circle of infinite circumference is a straight line
Wma8 TIL that despite the assumption that pre-19th century fashion was all about modesty, there was a period in the 1770s where extremely low cut necklines with areola and nipple exposure were common and considered less risqué than shoulder exposure.