› added 9 years ago

63

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.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

R75mj TIL that in the 1960s the CIA developed Tagboard, a supersonic resonance drone launched from the back of the M-21 (SR-71 predecessor) at Mach 3. It carried a high-resolution camera over a preprogrammed path, then released the film for mid-air retrieval, after which the drone would self-destruct.
16w7D TIL that according to etymologists and all searches conducted of historical usage, the term “bucket list” as the idiom we know today was never used in any book, newspaper, or publication until the movie “The Bucket List” came out in 2007. All prior uses have been debunked as misdated.
WknpY TIL that in 1915, 30 year old Essie Dunbar was pronounced dead and buried. When she was dug up so her sister, who was late, could say goodbye, the not dead Essie sat up and lived for 47 more years.
OobvY TIL I learned that Owls can't move their eyes at all - they can only look straight ahead. To compensate, they use their long, flexible necks to move their eyes through 270 degrees of rotation. Their eye 'structures' provide fantastic vision and account for up to five percent of their body weight.
yK8v TIL that during World War I, the Russian and German armies were repeatedly attacked by starving wolves. It became such a problem that the two armies negotiated a temporary truce and worked together to kill several hundred wolves