› added 3 years ago

163

TIL: About the naval term - broom at the masthead. It meant that a vessel had made a clean sweep of enemy vessels. Ships literally hung a broom from the mast of a ship. Commonly used in WW2, it dates back to the 17th century.

Read more beatlyzer.com

via beatlyzer.com

dKkZ TIL Gaius Duillius, a Roman Consul, was so esteemed during the first Punic War that the senate awarded him theme music to accompany him to and from dinner for the rest of his life
9wQ1B TIL in December of 1996, a crime novelist was found hanged by a noose from his Chicago office window. Although officially ruled to be suicide, several items were found on him including a bulletproof vest, brass knuckles, mace and an unfinished novel that oddly contained a similar suicide scene.
vPMj7 TIL in 2010 Bill Murray & members of the Wu-Tang Clan were hanging out at SXSW when they entered the packed Shangri-La bar together, whereupon Murray spontaneously decided to hop over the bar & become a surprise temporary bartender who served generous tequila shots regardless of what patrons ordered
panA TIL that Sergey Tuganov died after winning a £3,000 bet that he could have sex with 2 women continuously for 12 hours. He used an entire bottle of Viagra and dies from a heart attack
x6MRo TIL about Thomas Cranmer, a Catholic priest who helped lead the English Reformation under Henry VIII and Edward VI. He even secretly married in Germany before it was allowed. When Mary I took power, she reversed the reforms, branded him a heretic, and had him burned at the stake.