› added 11 years ago

86

TIL the Naval Investigative Service knew the term “Friend of Dorothy” referred to gay men, but misunderstood the history of the phrase and launched an investigation to find this woman named “Dorothy” who they believed was at the centre of a ring of gay military personnel.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

b6lx0 TIL that the Great Vowel Shift between 1400-1700 was a series of pronunciation changes in English. With that many words froze with spelling and pronunciations not matching. This is why some English vowels are a mess with words like "meat" and "meet" being spelt differently but pronounced the same.
VrL4 TIL Google wants to build it’s own city for IRL beta testing
N7B1b TIL, Max Yasgur who hosted the '69 Woodstock concert, received only $10K, shunned by his neighbors, gave free water and milk to guests and was hailed. He died 4 years later and received a full page obituary in Rolling Stone as a non musician.
BrmQW TIL in California, agriculture accounts for 80% of state's water use. Only 20% goes to businesses and homes.
KOdQR TIL the oldest naval ship still in commission is HMS Victory. She was launched in 1765.