› added 12 years ago

75

TIL that, whilst fighting in the Spanish Civil War, George Orwell was shot through the neck. The bullet missed his main artery by a fraction, but he fully recovered - going on to write Animal Farm and 1984, amongst others.

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Lk4GZ TIL While hunting down a rival in 1963, Hiatian president Francois Duvalier was told that the rival had transformed himself into a black dog, which prompted Duvalier to order that all black dogs in Haiti be put to death
9Y4E7 TIL Humans lived inland in North America 1,000 years before scientists suspected. Stone tools and other artifacts found in Idaho hint that the First Americans lived here 16,000 years ago — long before an overland path to the continent existed. It’s more evidence humans arrived via a coastal route.
xVJ1B TIL SpaceX launched the remains of 152 people to space with a company called Celestis. That same company sent the ashes of Gene Roddenberry (Star Trek creator) to space as the first-ever space burial, back in 1992. Upcoming missions will send DNA and human ashes even farther, into Deep Space.
Brlpy TIL Horatio Nelson had a "friendship ceremony" where he exchanged rings with Emma Hamilton, while they were both married to other people
bE70 TIL that wristwatches were almost exclusively worn by women, men used pocket-watches. Wristwatches were first worn by military men towards the end of the 19th century as a way to synchronise maneuvers during war without revealing the plan to the enemy through signaling.