› added 4 months ago

30

TIL that Jesse Owens became lifelong friends with his German long jump opponent during the famous 1936 Berlin Olympics

Read more olympics.com

via reddit.com

vmM4 TIL the British tried to surrender to the French at the end of the American Revolution. French General Rochambeau refused British Brigadier General O'Hara’s sword and instead pointed him towards George Washington to offer surrender.
p8LMb TIL of Flossie Wong-Staal, a pioneering HIV/AIDS researcher who performed nucleotide sequencing on HIV to map its entire genetic makeup and to elucidate its many variations. Such research helped improve the medical outlook for millions of HIV/AIDS patients around the world.
pYAYZ TIL that no smoking signs became mandatory in airplane lavatories after a fire on Varig Flight 820 killed all but one passenger by carbon monoxide poisoning and smoke inhalation.
wN6Y TIL that the Slaves Didn’t Build Pyramids of Egypt. They were labourers who were respected for their work and were bestowed the honour of being buried in the tombs near the sacred pyramids of their pharaohs.
ob9R TIL as of 2011, there are still ~170 trees in Hiroshima that survived the atomic bomb; they are called the ‘Hibakujumoku’