/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 when a massive star goes supernova, it produces a flash of light so bright that can equal the combined light of every other star in the galaxy. One such event happened in 1054, it was so bright the light was visible during the day for a month and was still visible for 2 years afterwards.
en.wikipedia.orgSubmitted by Sysion t3_yiorx0