› added 12 years ago

134

TIL that the band “Eagles” sued a nonprofit eagle preservation organization for the use of the word “Eagles”.

Read more thediscography.org

via reddit.com

wLdEP TIL about Gilbert Seltzer - a WW2 veteran who lead a secret platoon of men within a unit dubbed the 'Ghost Army'. Made up of artists, creatives & engineers, their job was creating deception about the enemy. From inflatable tanks to scripted bar conversations, this unit's work led to big US wins.
kR1d TIL in 1977, William Kampiles stole a top-secret KH-11 spy satellite manual from the CIA which he sold to the Russians for $3000. He then told the CIA for who he worked what he had done in the hopes that they would hire him as a double agent. They didn’t and he was sentenced to 40 years in prison.
rNJkw TIL that by the third and fourth centuries most Roman citizens had entirely abandoned using parental given names (praenomen). Instead, they used clan names (nomen) or nicknames (cognomen)
pY6VZ TIL about the Spanish composer Enrique Granados who basically lived out the real life version of the end of Titanic when a ship he was on was torpedoed by a German submarine and his wife couldn't fit on the life raft.
xL17 TIL most languages name the game of Chess after their word for “check”