› added 8 years ago

211

TIL of Thomas(ine) Hall– a hermaphrodite in Colonial America. A trial was held where it was ruled (s)he was both “a man and a woeman”, and, to conform to the strict gender roles of the time, (s)he was order to wear, at all times, a man’s shirt and pants with a woman’s apron and bonnet.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

j6PWv TIL That in 1941, USS New York opened fire on an object, believing it to be a japanese aircraft. Fire commenced until a navigator realized they were shooting at Venus.
W8lN TIL 4% of the sand on Normandy beaches is made up of shrapnel from D-Day landings, broken down over the decades into sand-sized chunks.
EYw0 TIL Picasso’s La Reve was bought by Victor Ganz for $7000, over 20 times his monthly rent, then sold for $50 million to Steve Wynn, who put his elbow through it
mx0kE TIL of Stendhal syndrome,a condition that causes rapid heart rates and dizziness, triggered when one is exposed to high quality art and has been especially observed in Florence. The Uffizi is equipped with defibrillators to protect the visitors who are often stunned by the beauty of the exhibits
4X0E6 TIL The US Navy submarines started using Xbox 360 controllers back in 2017 to control their periscopes