› added 4 years ago

89

TIL about Roman Emperor Elagabalus, who loved to dress up as a woman, wore make up, depilated himself, requested to be refered to as a woman and acted as a courtesan. He also offered a large reward to anyone who could make him a vagina, which makes him the first recorded transgender person.

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yxAJ TIL scientists in California created eye drops that enable night vision up to 50 meters using a molecule found in deep sea fish
eppyb TIL of the "Kettenkrad", a motorcycle-tank used by the nazis in WW2
4XZW5 TIL that "Charlie" as used to refer to enemies in movies like Forrest Gump comes from the spoken alphabet, where the words "Victor Charlie" meant the letters VC = Viet Cong. As this was used a lot in radio communications, over time it became shortened to just "Charlie".
ygAV TIL David Ogilvy, a founder/forefather of modern advertising, despised outdoor ads: “Man is at his vilest when he erects a billboard. When I retire from Madison Avenue, I am going to start a secret society of masked vigilantes… chopping down posters at the dark of the moon.”
Z5oB TIL that on the night before his scheduled execution, Troy Leon Gregg successfully escaped Georgia State Prison’s death row. Later that night, he was beaten to death in a bar fight in North Carolina.