Post * jnRp — Curious Curator

› added 9 years ago

80

TIL that Alfred Gwynne Vanderbilt, one of America’s richest men, was listed as drowning aboard the Titanic despite a last minute decision not to go. He was then killed when Lusitania was sunk three years later.

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XE9Lk TIL future World Series-winning manager Terry Francona managed the Double-A Birmingham Barons in 1994 when Michael Jordan played a season of minor league baseball with the Barons

69X6m TIL about Odette Sansom Hallowes. An SOE agent during WWII, she was captured by the Gestapo, interrogated, tortured, and sentenced to death twice. She survived the war and was the first woman to be awarded the UK’s George Cross. In 1951 her GC was stolen, but later returned with an apology note.

J1Qyj TIL that "semi-slugs" exist. Their shells are not completely absent but are also not large enough to provide a shelter to hide in. There are also about 1,000 known species of semi-slugs, while there are 500 known species of "normal" slugs.

XENrj TIL that metric paper sizes (like A4) reflect the number of equal cuts from an A0 sheet (1 square meter). So A1 is 0.5 sq meter, A2 is 0.25, etc. with all sizes of equal proportions. The closest to US letter paper is A4, which measures 210 x 297mm (8.3 x 11.7 inch, close to US letter 8.5 x 11 inch).

d8r7E TIL that the Pledge of Allegiance was compulsory in US schools until a Jehovah Witness Father appealed to the court that saluting the flag in such a manner made it a "graven image," and by forcing his children to do so was an attack on this family's right to freedom of religion and speech.