› added 6 years ago

236

TIL that after France surrended in June 1940, the Royal Navy sailed down to Algeria to seize the bulk of the French navy. When the French refused to surrender control of the ships, the Royal Navy open fired, destroying the fleet and killing 1300 French sailors

8abjL TIL a 60 years old Japanese Truck Driver found out he was accidentally switched at birth in 1953 at San Ikukai Hospital in Tokyo. His biological parents are rich family & the infant who took his place grew up to be the Head of a Real Estate company. Meanwhile he was raised by a poor single mother.
woLXE TIL that Bowerbirds have been observed creating optical illusions in their bowers to appeal to mates. They arrange objects in the bower's court area from smallest to largest, creating a forced perspective which holds the attention of the female for longer.
woZvW TIL that the modern three-point safety belt was perfected by Volvo engineer Nils Bohlin in 1959 – and its patent given for free to the world. The invention has been credited with saving at least a million lives worldwide.
69dZl TIL The earth's circumference is roughly 40,000km because the metre was based off the circumference of earth. The metre was originally a ten-millionth of the distance from the North Pole to the equator, 1/4th of the circumference. Now a metre is defined by the travel of light in caesium frequencies
QaWk TIL Sweden has state-sponsored, after-school music programs, which might explain why Swedish songwriters and producers were responsible for 25% of the Billboard Top Ten Hits last year