› added 7 years ago

302

TIL the Romans divided the day into 24 hours. Unlike us, there were always 12 hours of daylight and 12 hours of darkness. A daylight hour in summer was considerably longer than one in winter.

Read more blogs.transparent.com

via ift.tt

loJ6B TIL Frank Zappa was a futurist who was enthusiastic for the possibility of holographic imagery. So much so that he recorded footage of himself in the early 70s with the intention to be used when technology got to that point. A Frank Zappa holographic tour using that footage starts next year.
D157V TIL that Nintendo pushed usage of the term "game console" so people would stop calling products from other manufacturers "Nintendos", otherwise they would have risked losing their trademark.
P1gjG TIL Photography was invented simultaneously by multiple people in different parts of the world using vastly different processes to produce a fixed image on a surface. Nicéphore Niépce / Louis Daguerre (France, 1826, 1839), Hércules Florence (Brazil, 1832), Henry Fox Talbot (England, 1834).
XEYZX TIL about the italian general Pietro Badoglio. He's responsible for the defeat of Caporetto in WWI; the use of mustard gas during the italian invasion of Ethiopia; the failed invasion of Greece, the "switch of side" and the triggering of the Italian Civil War during WWII.
ZpJOv TIL the first thanksgiving was actually held in St. Augustine, Florida by Catholic missionaries - 55 years prior to the famed Plymouth thanksgiving