› added 13 years ago

227

TIL that Oprah was pregnant at 14 years old

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

9wAnm TIL that, inspired by the Maginot Line in France, the British built a defensive network in Hong Kong. Called the Gin Drinkers Line or Oriental Maginot Line, it was designed to hold off a Japanese invasion for six months. Hit by understaffing and a malaria outbreak, it only lasted two days.
D6gV TIL the earliest known vending machine dates back to first-century AD Greece. Hero of Alexandria, a Greek engineer and mathematician created a machine that accepted a coin and then dispensed holy water.
mxPgR TIL that Wilson Greatbatch invented the implantable pacemaker – but he didn’t mean to. He was attempting to build a device that recorded heart rhythms, but after he misassembled the contraption, he noticed that it was giving off a heartbeat-like pulse. The pacemaker went on to save millions of lives
NDNP TIL: Sioux Indians peacefully surrendered as their land was being stolen, then still were attacked by US forces in the Wounded Knee Massacre
rNYmy TIL Charles Darwin's personal pet tortoise (Harriet) didn't die until recently at an estimated age of 175 years.