› added 8 years ago

133

TIL that before the final British soldiers left Manhattan in 1783, one final act of defiance was the nailing of the Union Jack flag to the top of a flagpole and greasing the pole

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

Yp6Zd TIL The atomic-bomb-carrying 509th Composite Group named many of their planes after their special mission: Strange Cargo, Up An' Atom, Necessary Evil, Some Punkins. They also had special tail markings but it was replaced for operational security reasons. Their famous nose art was mostly added after.
rRPpW TIL that painter Andrew Wyeth is buried at the Olson property in Maine next to Christina Olson, the woman he immortalised through his painting Christina's World.
4XYmJ TIL female spotted hyenas are the only mammalian with no external vaginal opening. They use a 20cm (~8 inch) pseudo-penis to reproduce and urinate.
mx6Mo TIL in 1997 Russia tried manually docking a supply vessel to the Mir space station using only a handheld laser range finder, stopwatch, and remote control joysticks. It went badly, but visiting NASA astronaut Michael Foale managed to save Mir by MacGyvering sailing technique with physics knowledge.
KY96J TIL The giant balloons in the Macy’s parade were originally allowed to float away, and those who found them got a gift certificate from Macy’s.