› added 3 years ago

189

TIL that Napoleon was of average height for his era and that his reputation as a short man was largely spread through the works of British satirical cartoonist James Gillray. His satire was so effective that Napoleon once said that Gillray "did more than all the armies of Europe to bring me down."

Read more history.com

via reddit.com

N7vLN TIL of Elizabeth Lundy, the "grandmother of the Canadian Army". Starting in 1914, she knit 400 pairs of socks for Canadian soldiers serving overseas.
x61r1 TIL 45 years ago, ahi (tuna) were caught for fun and ground into pet food. In Japan, tuna was called neko-matagi, meaning “fish that even a cat would disdain.”
W76p4 TIL that after being denied having his dog in his dorm at Cambridge, famous poet Lord Byron got a pet bear since there was no rule against them.
O0Pa TIL the popular 90’s energy drink ‘SURGE’ can still be bought in Norway under the name 'URGE’
BrZvk TIL that JJ Thomson, a famous physicist who lived from 1856-1940 and who was known for identifying the electron as a discreet particle (for which he won a Nobel Prize), was such an amazing teacher that 9 of his students also won the Nobel Prize across multiple fields.