› added 1 year ago

45

TIL that Bell Labs, famous for the transistor, Unix, C++, and the Laser, is owned by Nokia

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aw8Y9 TIL of the Leakey family, a British extended family consisting of several high-ranking military officials, "Black Rod", two VC winners, and notable archaeologists and scientists.
oR4dE TIL In the West the largest meal of the day has historically been eaten at midday. It was not until Napoleon's empire there was the "abominable habit of dining as late as seven in the evening" as British travelers reported. The British adopted later dinners by 1850 from changes in work schedules.
JYv78 TIL Nicholas II, last Tzar of Russia, had a Japanese tattoo of a "dragon with a black body, yellow horns, a red belly and green paws.” He got it on a trip to Japan. Later he was attacked by "Sanzo, a former samurai who fought in the Satsuma Rebellion." All this before the Russo-Japanese War.
4XEj5 TIL in 1962 the US detonated a nuke, Starfish Prime, in space to clear out Van Allen belt radiation (making Apollo missions safer) and for research. It took out part of Hawaii's electrical grid, several satellites, and made the Van Allen radiation much worse. A planned further test was cancelled.
J1DrV TIL that the Columbine massacre was actually a failed bombing. Eric Harris and Dylan Klebold planted bombs and attempted to blow up the school and kill hundreds of people but they failed and instead did the shooting.