› added 7 years ago

355

TIL The story that the Titanic engineers remained inside the ship till the end to keep the electricity running didn’t actually happen

Read more encyclopedia-titanica.org

via ift.tt

jNA8a TIL that the Queen christened the British Royal Navy's new aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth with a bottle of single malt Scotch whisky from the Bowmore distillery on the island of Islay instead of champagne because the ship had been built and launched in Scotland.
x6Lwo TIL that anyone can make cheques; you do not need to order a chequebook from your bank / credit union (Canada anyways)
9YlpG TIL that in 2006, CNN mistakenly used an image of the Balrog from a 1977 Lord of the Rings calendar to represent Satan. Stephen Colbert recognized the image because he had that calendar and mocked CNN for the mistake.
oBXnE TIL Bowie lured unknown Stevie Ray Vaughn to play on his '83 album "Let's Dance" by dangling an opening act on tour. However, after recording, Vaughn was relegated to backup musician and wouldn't be allowed to talk about his music. So, he quit, released "Texas Flood", and became a superstar instead.
KN74 TIL that in WWI, the Germans disguised one of their ships as a British ship, the RMS Carmania, and sent it out to ambush British vessels. In a hilariously bad stroke of luck, the first ship it encountered was the real RMS Carmania, which promptly sank them.