› added 5 years ago

80

TIL about William Breckinridge, a captain of the Confederacy who later renounced the views that led him to fight for them and became a racial equality advocate. He also represented blacks in court as a lawyer and was even noted by a black lawyer that he had helped many blacks in their law careers.

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QWK9 TIL in WWII a woman-only Soviet bomber regiment were nicknamed the “Night Witches” by German soldiers. For a successful bombing run, the Witches would cut the engine of their archaic and noisy aircraft. Gliding in, they would release their bombs before the enemy even knew they were there.
VOgp TIL net-hunter cone snails release sedatives into the water to lull their victims into a deep sleep before engulfing multiple fish at a time in their horrific, tentacle-covered, extensible mouths.
Egxl7 TIL that due to a failed initial land survey that the border was Georgia-Tennessee border was drawn about a mile south of the agreed upon 35th parallel, this issue has been revisited recently as the reclaimed territory would give GA access to the Tennessee river allow more water for Atlanta.
N7Dv6 TIL that up to 1980 there were only 5 English medieval longbows known to still exist. In 1980, 137 longbows in excellent condition were recovered from the wreck of King Henry VIII's naval ship, the Mary Rose, which had capsized in the 1500s.
NMRb TIL the Taj Mahal was covered with a huge scaffold during WW2 to make it look like a stockpile of Bamboo and misguide any enemy bombers. (It was also disguised again in 1971!)