› added 2 years ago

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TIL on 30 1993, CERN opened the World Wide Web, "a wide-area hypermedia information retrieval initiative aiming to give universal access to a large universe of documents," when it established the very first URL, http://info.cern.ch. It's still there.

Read more info.cern.ch

via reddit.com

6EVp7 TIL that after 2 years of using a Catalan mercenary company to fight the Turks, the Byzantine emperor betrayed the company and tried to wipe them out in 1305. The mercenaries went on a rampage so destructive that the monks of Mount Athos only lifted their ban of Catalan citizens in the year 2000.
ANxWw TIL Rome was sacked by the Gauls in 390 BC, before it had become a major power. The defeat influenced the Romans to move away from the Greek fixed phalanx form of fighting toward the use of maniples, or small maneuverable groups of soldiers that could adapt more quickly without being pinned down
yQoO8 TIL those responsible for the hack of Target's customers' credit card data entered through the HVAC system's internet connection which was serviceable via the web and connected to the same server as the credit card data.
jNW8n TIL that the Beatles spent 34 hours recording the song "A Day in the Life" as they needed multiple takes to perfect the orchestral parts and the famous final chord. By contrast, the Beatles' debut album, Please Please Me, had been recorded in its entirety in only 15 hours, 45 minutes.
d8Ql9 TIL that there is a striking resemblance between Chateau de Rastignac (France) and the White House (US). It is speculated that the castle's plan may have inspired the White House's columns