› added 1 year ago

192

TIL smallpox killed more people in the 20th century than all the wars combined.

Read more pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

via reddit.com

7r4Np TIL that the word “huh” is a universal word, with almost identical meaning across 31 languages.
oBQo TIL that the oldest school in the world was founded between 143-141 BC during the rule of the Han Dynasty in Chengdu, China, and is still in use today
jN5Dp TIL the earliest recorded use of LOL as an initialism was for "little old lady" in the 1960s. During the Apollo mission, ferrite cores were used as transformers and acted as either a binary one or zero. The LOLs created the required software by weaving together sequences of one and zero cores.
KV5J TIL in 1978, a US Navy ship was attacked by an unknown species of giant squid. Nearly all of the cuts found on the sonar dome contained remnants of sharp, curved claws found on suction cups of squid tentacles. The claws were much larger than those of any squid that had been discovered at that time.
4XKXg TIL that film director Akira Kurosawa hired expert archers to shoot real arrows at Toshiro Mifune while he dodged them in choreographed movements. Mifune’s visible terror is quite real.