› added 9 years ago

102

TIL that possibly the most iconic of French foods, the Croissant, is actually Austrian.

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YpL9B TIL King Edward I of England built the largest trebuchet ever made called "the Warwolf". The Scots inside the castle surrendered by the mere sight of it but Edward used it anyways because it was so awesome and wanted to see it in action.
YpvAZ TIL that the first battle of WWI consisted of a British ship firing a single shot at a German ship on Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi) in Africa, and taking the captain "prisoner." The two captains had been drinking buddies for years, and weren't about to let the war ruin it.
QJKgM TIL that Finland's reindeer herders wanted to reduce the 4,000 annual reindeer road deaths. They painted antlers in fluorescent colors, hung reflectors around necks, and used movable traffic signs. This failed, so they tried a mobile app for drivers to register sightings and get reindeer warnings.
WkVyo TIL a man willed his estate to whichever woman in Toronto bore the most children in the decade after his death. Four women tied at 9 children and received $100,000 each.
rwLx TIL that the Ostrich-Egg Globe may be the oldest globe, dated 1504, to depict the New World, engraved with immaculate detail on two conjoined halves of ostrich eggs.