› added 10 years ago

236

TIL that 74 soldiers marched across a bridge at the same rate of the bridges natural frequency (mechanical resonance). This eventually caused the bridge to collapse and ever since the incident, soldiers have been ordered to “break step” when crossing bridges.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

VM1yQ TIL The aversion of most predators toward hunting honey badgers has led to the suggestion that the countershaded coats of cheetah cubs evolved in imitation of the honey badger's colouration, which warns off predators.
X6nk TIL “vegetable” is a culinary term, not a botanical term.
Q71a TIL that Zoe Koplowitz has placed last in each of the 25 NYC Marathons she has run. She holds the record for longest marathon time by a woman (33 hrs, 9 mins), set in 2013. She has MS and diabetes and runs each marathon on crutches.
nYZY TIL Walter Washington, first black mayor of DC, during the riots after the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. was urged by the FBI to shoot the rioters. Instead he walked through the city and urged angry young people to go home and help those who had been burned out. Only one person refused
LQNp0 TIL that 1993-1994 was when China had its first multi-camera sitcom, I Love My Family, inspired by Mandarin-dubbed episodes of Growing Pains and changed Chinese comedy forever.