› added 5 years ago

78

TIL in World War II, U.S. Navy ship accidentally got in proximity with the Japanese ship, Someone decided to throw potatoes in panic. Japanese thought they were grenades and they threw it back which resulted in a potato fight. While they were distracted, the U.S. successfully sunk the enemy ship.

Read more defensionem.com

via reddit.com

xraD TIL a soldier in Iraq was found dead in her tent in 2005. The autopsy report and photographs revealed a broken nose, black eye, loose teeth, burns from a corrosive chemical on her genitals, and a gunshot wound to the head. Her death was ruled a suicide.
7Lop TIL that Pepsi and Coca-Cola are used as Pesticide by Farmers in India as they are cheap and get the job done.
d8dP7 TIL grasshoppers that live near a road evolve to call at a higher pitch than more rural grasshoppers so as to be heard over the traffic. This increases their chances of mating. Birds in noisier parts of cities also call at higher pitches than the same species of birds in quieter parts.
b6R1p TIL in the 18th-20th centuries in Britain STD patients would be 'quarantined' in a facility called a "Lock hospital," a hospital designed to treat STD victims; originally used to house victims of leprosy.
awGLJ TIL natural gas is odorless, the smell is from a harmless chemical called mercaptan, first ordered by the Texas Legislature in 1937 to be put into gas so people could smell a leak after the worst school disaster in US history occured from a gas explosion in New London killing nearly 300