› added 4 years ago

52

TIL the first woman elected president of a country was Vigdís Finnbogadóttir of Iceland, who won the 1980 presidential election as well as three others to also become the longest-serving non-hereditary female head of state in history (almost exactly 16 years in office)

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

4kvg TIL that only one man, Sulla, has ever lead successful military campaigns against both Athens and Rome.
5V0lQ TIL that Mecca was laid siege in 1979 by a man who thought he was the prophesied Mahdi (the eschatological basis of Frank Herbert's Muad'Dib) and this attack triggered the conservative transformation away from liberal reforms, for Saudi culture, for decades.
GAvyG TIL The US Army has 50 commissioned ships
9YwVG TIL that Ayatollah Khomeini of Iran was well-known for calling the US the "Great Satan". He also called the Soviet Union the "Lesser Satan" and Israel "Little Satan".
7Xob TIL the original lyrics to Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas were, “Have yourself a merry little Christmas, It may be your last. Next year we may all be living in the past,” but Judy Garland demanded a re-write.