› added 5 years ago

216

TIL in one 13th-century version of the King Arthur myth, Merlin is the spawn of a demon and a mortal woman and was intended by Satan to be the Antichrist, but was baptized by a priest shortly after birth which nullified Satan's plan, and now uses his demonic powers of magic and prophecy for good.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

neaxo TIL about Smoky the Yorkie, a pet dog to soldiers in the south pacific, weighing 4lbs, who kept operational 40 United States fighters by running a wire tied to her collar through a 6in pipe, completing a 3 day construction job in minutes. Also had 10 recognized combat flights, 8 combat stars.
9P6D TIL For centuries the main source of metal to Greenland’s Inuits was from fragments of a 58-ton Iron Meteorite
oYjA TIL that Alan Greenspan once tried to have his dissertation banned from New York University. When a copy was obtained by Barron’s, it was found to be “a discussion of soaring housing prices and their effect on consumer spending; it even anticipates a bursting housing bubble.”
wvD7 TIL that a nudity war began on Brazilian TV in 1990. A network won top ratings with a prime-time soap opera with full frontal nudity; another fought back with uncut nudity in films. A third television network instead aired high-quality literary adaptations, and had the worst ratings in its history.
16oQ8 TIL that the Welsh Labour Party holds the longest winning streak of any political party in the democratic world. It has consistently been in the biggest party in Wales at every election since November 1922.