› added 4 years ago

643

TIL that on July 4, 1776, George Washington bought a broom.

Read more npr.org

via reddit.com

RO78 TIL The Object 269, created by Soviet engineers in 1959, was a tank that was designed to survive a nuclear explosion.
9Y5Rp TIL In 1923, a jockey suffered a fatal heart attack but his horse finished and won the race, making him the first and only jockey to win a race after death
0r0R TIL that the Taung Child - the first Australopithecus fossil ever discovered - was originally killed by a bird of prey after having its eyes gouged out ~2.8 million years ago
moBR TIL the first black-white interracial kiss on American television was on an episode of Star Trek. However, the producers were worried about the show being banned in the South because of it, and tried to shoot alternate versions of the shot. The actors intentionally flubbed those shots.
J874 TIL the mantis shrimp strikes a blow at the speed of a bullet, which also produces cavitation bubbles (similar to boiling) in the water. The prey is thus struck twice - once by the blow itself, and a second time when the bubbles collapse. The blow is powerful enough to break aquarium glass as well.