› added 6 years ago

87

TIL of Howard Blackburn—a sailor who, after becoming stranded and losing his mittens in a small boat off the coast of Newfoundland, let his hands freeze in a hooked position so he could row back to shore. He lost all his fingers, but survived and went on to sail across the Atlantic single-handedly.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

OoAL4 TIL that a deaf painter named Granville Redmond befriended Charlie Chaplin and helped him develop the techniques he used in his silent movies. Chaplin gave Redmond a studio on the movie lot, collected his paintings, and sponsored him in silent roles.
jBjv TIL Han Solo was an Imperial Lieutenant before his companionship with Chewbacca.
lkbN TIL King Edward I built the largest trebuchet ever in order to lay siege to a Scottish Castle. The sight of the giant trebuchet so intimidated the Scots that they tried to surrender, but Edward sent them back so he could use his new weapon to launch 300 lb projectiles at the castle.
P1xng TIL in the film Titanic, it is not Celine Dion singing the first time audiences hear the theme for "My Heart Will Go On," it is instead a lyric-less version sung by Norwegian singer Sissel Kyrkjebø
41j6 TIL of Rocket War, an annual festival on the island of Chios, Greece, where residents of two towns fire 60,000 rockets at each other while trying to hit the rival town’s church bell… while people attend mass inside.