› added 12 years ago

151

TIL a consortium of American and German organizations cut a hole in the side of a 747 to install a 2.5m telescope. This modified plane is flown above most of the atmosphere so infrared observations can be made.

Read more sofia.usra.edu

via reddit.com

GYYEJ In Iceland, a question of ice and fire
yV8gw TIL Mary de Bohun was a 14th Century English heiress. To protect an inheritance, her brother-in-law tried to make her a nun. Instead, in a secret plot, she married the future King Henry IV at age 11 and gave birth to six children. She died in childbirth at age 26.
6wKJ TIL That the Civil War started and ended on the same mans’ (Wilmer Mclean) property, who fled his property at the sight of the battle of Bull Run only to purchase what would become known as Appomattox Courthouse
GMvN TIL Listerine was sold as a cure for gonorrhea in the 19th century. But it wasn’t a success until the 1920s, when it was pitched as a solution for bad breath. Listerine’s ads featured women turned off by their mate’s bad breath. Until that time, bad breath was not considered such a catastrophe.
M7AwV TIL the Letters Q, W, and X were ince illegal in Turkey