› added 1 year ago

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TIL that the term hunky-dory was coined by Japanese Tommy, one of only a few black performers allowed on white stages before the civil war.

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V8m4 TIL Wilhelm Brasse was an Auschwitz prisoner assigned to take thousands of photos for five years. After WW2, the portrait photographer tried to start taking photos but was so traumatized by the ‘ghosts’ of the 'dead’ that he was unable, later saying he would 'never take another photograph’.
R5Q9a TIL the ancient Irish had their own alphabet similar to Viking runes, with 20 letters each named after a tree. Scholars still debate whether it was invented to communicate covertly with Roman Britain right next door
gdQL TIL that the symbols on the first Playstation controllers actually had a purpose. Triangle: A Person’s Viewpoint, Square: A Map, Circle: Yes, and X: No. It was assumed that games released on this console would mostly use controls based on the meanings of these symbols.
yQ5Ol TIL Jason Everman the guitarist that was kicked out of Nirvana and Soundgarden went on to become a special forces war hero.
9wpWX TIL that a few billion years ago an Earth day was only about 19 hours