› added 2 years ago

79

TIL about the RMS Mülheim, a German owned freighter that was wrecked off the coast of Ireland because the officer of the bridge had his trousers caught in the lever of his chair while getting up and was subsequently knocked unconscious.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

DoeP TIL: Mary Bowser, a freed slave with a Quaker education and a photographic memory, posed as a slow witted slave to spy for the Union in Confederate president Jefferson Davis’ household through much of the Civil War.
neZDW TIL that Uzbekistan and Liechtenstein are the only double-landlocked countries in the world. In order to get to the ocean from these countries you have to cross 2 national borders.
J9wk TIL When U.S. space shuttles started linking up with Russia’s Mir in 1995, both sides owed a small debt to the KGB. it was the KGB that successfully stole the U.S. designs in the ‘70s and '80s, unintentionally laying the groundwork for the compatibility between the U.S. and Russian systems.
WkPN8 TIL the first sports bra was made in 1977 by sewing two jock straps together. Its literal test run was performed by of its two inventors: one jogging forwards wearing the Macgyvered prototype while her friend ran ahead, jogging backwards so she could assess her friend's "bounciness"
NXwwP TIL that twelve years after publishing a book reviewing the history of political corruption in West Virginia, former West Virginia Supreme Court justice Allen Loughry was convicted in federal court of eleven counts related to corruption and sentenced to two years in prison.