› added 10 years ago

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TIL that with the invention of the pendulum clock in 1656, Christiaan Huygens increased the best accuracy of clocks from 15 minutes deviation a day to around 15 seconds a day.

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YpvlA TIL: U.S. Medal of Honor recipients (in all branches of service) their children are automatically approved for enrollment into U.S. military academy so long as they meet basic requirements. Note: Acceptance rating for most applicants in general is less than 10%.
PYxOO TIL that in 1970 the fifa ball was changed to black and white (from traditional brown) so the viewer watching in b/w TV's will be able to see the ball clearly,even though the vast majority of footballs were then still brown.
yQPnp TIL in 1209, crusaders were sent to siege Béziers (in France) as many citizens had become heretics. Before the attack, the army asked the Pope's ambassador on how to distinguish between heretics and Catholics, he replied: "Kill them all; let God sort them out." All 20,000 inhabitants were killed.
4PWJ TIL that “to train each Apache pilot from scratch cost £3 million. It took six months just to learn how to fly it, another six to know how to fight in it, and a final six to be passed combat ready. And that was if you were already a fully qualified, combat-trained army helicopter pilot.”
RQ8w TIL that JFK would not let Sammy Davis play in the White house in 1961 after his interracial marriage Illegal in 31 states at the time. His marriage not only made headlines, it inspired death threats and demonstrations and forced Davis to hire 24-hour armed guards.