› added 7 years ago

77

TIL the U.S. Congress passed a tax on long distance phone calls to pay for the Spanish-American War (1898). The war ended 4 months later, but the tax remained in place for over 100 years. On August 1, 2006, the IRS announced it would no longer collect the tax.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

WkRPB TIL that former Zimbabwean President Canaan Banana made it illegal to joke about his name in 1982
4XRE5 TIL That Phillips screws and screwdrivers should be called Thompsons. They were invented by John P. Thompson, who couldn't find a manufacturer and so sold the design to businessman Henry F. Phillips.
AN0Mo TIL that Republicans have won Alaska in all but one of the presidential elections it has participated in since it's admission to the Union, with the sole exception being when Lyndon Johnson carried the state in 1964. No state has voted for a Democratic presidential candidate fewer times.
M87m TIL the author of The Princess Bride also wrote the screenplays for Misery, A Few Good Men, Twins, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, and All The President’s Men.
Yp6Zd TIL The atomic-bomb-carrying 509th Composite Group named many of their planes after their special mission: Strange Cargo, Up An' Atom, Necessary Evil, Some Punkins. They also had special tail markings but it was replaced for operational security reasons. Their famous nose art was mostly added after.