OGvM6 TIL after incumbent West Virginia governor Bob Wise was caught having an affair with a government employee, the employee's husband got a divorce and ran in the primary, openly stating himself to be unqualified and only doing so to be a "sheer nuisance" to Bob Wise
69wQ7 TIL the 'All Red Line' was a system of electrical telegraphs that linked much of the British Empire from 1902. 8,000 tonnes of cable was needed to complete the longest section from Canada to a Pacific island. On completion, 49 cable cuts would be needed to isolate the United Kingdom
wo4KE TIL Bosnia's currency, the convertible mark, was originally divided into 100 'pfennig' named after 1/100 of the German mark. However since it was seen as unpronounceable in Bosnian it was renamed 'fenig', but banknotes and coins issued misspelled it as 'fening' which has never been corrected.
R5ynl TIL about the Australian Frontier wars, a series of armed conflicts between British settlers and indigenous native Australians with a direct victim count of between 30,000 and 100,000 indigenous people. The total collapse of the native population may have run into the millions.
W7bx9 TIL about Orbis et Globus, a 3-metre, 7-tonne concrete sphere on the island of Grímsey in northern Iceland, designed to move until the whole of Iceland leaves the Arctic Circle by around 2047. This is due to the Earth's axial tilt and it will not return for another 20,000 years or so.
9wXQ6 TIL Bagpipers played DURING battle on the front-lines, completely unarmed…
nWMmr TIL that the 1999 British Grand Prix was red flagged due to Race Director Charlie Whiting accidentally hitting the red flag button instead of the pit exit open button. While the red flags were out, Michael Schumacher crashed at Stowe corner due to brake failure, breaking his right leg.
4kWLN TIL that a 2,000-year-old Chinese woman, Lady Dai (Xin Zhui), was found so well-preserved that her skin was still soft and her blood type could be determined.
x6nak TIL that the biggest benefit of drinking pickle juice is its ability to quickly stop cramping. The drink has been found to stop cramping 40% faster than drinking water, which is why its favoured by athletes.
5VRQQ TIL The Penn Library at the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia is home to the largest collection of Frisian-language literature outside of Europe. Frisian is spoken by 500,000 people and is the language closest to English.
M7pMV TIL the UK doesn't have a codified constitution. There's no singular document that contains it or is even titled a constitution. It's instead based in parliamentary acts, legal decisions and precedent, and general precedent.
j6bZM TIL: One of the founders of ILM, Richard Edlund, also founded Pignose, a battery powered portable guitar amp manufacturer that has been in production since 1969.