› added 2 years ago

64

TIL Ada Lovelace, daughter of poet Lord Byron, is considered by some to be the first computer programmer. She wrote notes on Charles Babbage's "Analytical Engine" that included an algorithm for calculating a sequence of numbers. Lovelace envisioned the machine creating art and music.

EbA0 TIL the fruit versus vegetable debate depends on the botanical or culinary definition. Botanically, eggplants, bell peppers and tomatoes are fruits while in culinary terms, they are considered vegetables.
neOv7 TIL There is no way to visually identify the sex of a beaver, as they have no external genitalia. To determine their sex you must milk their anal glands. If the excreted fluid smells like motor oil, it's a male. If it smells like old cheese, it's a female.
b9N00 TIL of Miriam Rodríguez Martínez, a mother whose daughter was kidnapped and murdered by the cartel, who took it upon herself to capture the men responsible one by one.
p8xZG TIL of Eilmer of Malmesbury. An English monk who, in the 11th century, developed a glider and flew ~200m high. However, a gush of wind crashed him and left him crippled for the rest of his life. He wrote later in life that the reason for the crash was not developing a tail component to the glider.
v1bXx TIL At the age of thirty-five, Martin Luther King, Jr., was the youngest man to have received the Nobel Peace Prize in 1964. When notified of his selection, he announced that he would turn over the prize money of $54,123 to the furtherance of the civil rights movement.