› added 8 years ago

78

TIL that Lord Collingwood, Nelson’s second in command at the Battle of Trafalgar, would carry a pocket full of acorns on walks in the countryside, planting them as he went so the ‘Navy would never want for oaks to build the fighting ships upon which the country’s safety depended.’

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wOyo TIL Gandhi never said, “First, they ignore you. Then, they ridicule you. And then, they attack you and want to burn you. And then, they build monuments to you.” It was a union leader. Nicholas Klein said it in a 1914 address to the Amalgamated Clothing Workers of America in Baltimore.
gMKrX TIL about a mega-colony of Argentine Ants spanning 6 continents and 1000s of miles territory including Japan, California and the Mediterranean coast. It is the largest inter-related colony ever discovered and rivals humans in its global scale
Bg8Lr TIL Spacesbetweenwordsarearelativelyrecentdevelopmentinthehistoryofwrittenlanguage
oBPLL TIL the word "literally" has been used figuratively for hundreds of years. Charles Dickens, Charlotte Brontë, Jane Austen, and Mark Twain all used it for hyperbole.
VBdgB TIL that United Flight 175, the 2nd plane to crash into the WTC on 9/11, rapidly descended at an “unheard of” 5,000 ft/min during its final 5 minutes. Flying at 590 mph, the aircraft also banked sharply just before impact, as it might’ve otherwise just clipped the South Tower or missed it entirely.