› added 4 years ago

276

TIL On July 21, 1861, the first major battle of the American Civil War, known in the North as the First Battle of Bull Run and in the South as the Battle of First Manassas, also earned the nickname the “Picnic Battle” because spectators showed up with sandwiches and opera glasses to watch the battle

Read more history.com

via reddit.com

b6Rj9 TIL that Sweden switched from driving on the left-hand side of the road to the right-hand side of the road all in one day
7gpL TIL Asia Carrera (porn star) was awarded a full academic scholarship to Rutgers University, where she majored in Japanese & Business and is a member of Mensa,with an IQ of 156.
D6br TIL that when you use laundry detergent labelled as a “brightener,” it doesn’t make the clothing any cleaner or restore its color….it’s actually a chemical combination that absorbs more light in the electromagnetic spectrum and re-emits fluorescent light to make the clothing appear brighter.
9wZMQ TIL that Sir Hudson Lowe who was Napoleon’s jailer at St Helena, enjoyed creating lots of petty rules for Napoleon to follow including restricting the amount of firewood he could burn to stay warm.
xMEo TIL that there are two species of flowering plants growing in Antarctica, even though 98% of the continent is covered by ice that averages 1.9 kilometres (1.2 miles) in thickness.