/f/todayilearned
TIL about William Sitgreaves Cox a junior officer aboard the USS Chesapeake who was court martialed for leaving his command when he assisted his wounded captain below decks. Since all other senior officers were wounded, he had become the commanding officer by default, unbeknownst to him.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by ClownfishSoup t3_yjp7v6
Submitted by schadenfreudender t3_yjp2bg
TIL that Alan Turing, the mathematician renowned for his contributions to computer science and codebreaking, converted his savings into silver during WW2 and buried it, fearing German invasion. However, he was unable to break his own code describing where it was hidden, and never recovered it.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by Mega_Dunsparce t3_yjbjga
TIL of Mimizuka, a shrine in Kyoto, Japan dedicated to 68,000 Korean and Chinese noses collected during Toyotomi Hideyoshi's invasions of Korea in the 1590s. The Japanese killed at least 1 million Koreans & Chinese during the wars and collected at least 215,000 heads.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by Bend-It-Like-Bakunin t3_yj4rsa
Submitted by prisonsexx t3_yit4w7
TIL that for weddings, it is customary for the groom not to see his bride in her dress until the day of, since seeing it before is considered "bad luck". This goes back to the days of arranged marriages, where both parties didn't even meet each other until the day of the wedding.
easyweddings.com.auSubmitted by HagridsLeftShoe t3_yiesdy
Submitted by JJKingwolf t3_yihhhu
TIL Apollo 15 astronauts Scott, Worden and Irwin secretly carried 400 unauthorized postal covers in one of Scott’s spacesuit pockets to the Moon aboard the Falcon. They took payments for carrying the covers; were reprimanded by NASA and never flew in space again.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by thenerdknuckle t3_yigtnx