› added 3 years ago

139

TIL in the Battle of Kinshasa (2nd Congo War), Zimbabwean aircraft launched from the airport's northern part of the runway to bomb the Rwandan positions at the same airport's southern part of the runway. Average turnaround time was less than 5 minutes.

DQeXY TIL that the entire population of Toulon, France was temporarily evicted in 1543 so that a fleet of the allied Ottomans could winter in the city. 30,000 soldiers spent 8 months there, the cathedral was converted into a mosque, and the king had to pay them 800,000 gold coins before they would leave.
78bnO TIL that until the 1950s teaching of sign language in Australia was split along religious lines: Protestants learnt Auslan based on British Sign Language (BSL) while Catholics taught by Irish nuns learnt Australian Irish Sign Language (AISL). There are now only a few AISL speakers left.
wavP TIL The voice of Bart Simpson is an evangelical Scientologist, and has been known to use her iconic Bart Simpson voice as part of a robocall encouraging people to attend a Scientology event in Los Angeles.
W7vdB TIL the photographer that did the cover of Van Morrison's classic album Moondance framed the photos to conceal a large pimple on Van Morrison's forehead.
KYZ6E TIL of the ancient law of General Acerage. If a ship carrying cargo needs to jettison some of its load to save the rest, that loss is to be shared proportionally among interest holders and the ship owner. First written into law in 800BC, it continues to be declared in maritime emergencies.