› added 6 years ago

252

TIL that the popular spiral depiction of the Milky Way is actually of another galaxy, Messier 74. Since we live in the Milky Way, we can't take a picture of it from the outside.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

OG5da TIL that the Assassins were an order that existed between 1090 and 1275; they lived in the mountains of Persia and the Levant, and held a strict subterfuge policy throughout the Middle East through the covert murder of various state leaders.
vPZ9R TIL dogs can somehow determine the quickest path to fetch a ball thrown in water, something humans need calculus to solve
5KRn TIL that in WWI, the Germans converted liner SMS Cap Trafalgar into an armed merchant cruiser, which they then disguised as the British liner HMS Carmania. Off the coast of Brazil, Trafalgar was attacked and sunk by a British ship. That ship was also an armed merchant cruiser; the real HMS Carmania.
x6vy5 TIL in Waco Texas, 1916, a black 17 year old was severely mutilated and burned alive while 10-15,000 people watched and cheered. One man held his young son on his shoulder so he could see.
WAZX TIL Elephants are one of the few (if not the only) animals who can understand human pointing, without any training.