› added 4 years ago

55

TIL the attempted escape from Alcatraz on May 4, 1946 was inadvertently foiled for two reasons: the six convicts unknowingly jammed the door with several wrong keys and a prison guard previously held the right key (against prison regulations). This led to the Battle of Alcatraz that cost five lives.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

61El TIL Romania had the unusual distinction of being at war with both the Allied and Axis powers simultaneously in August-September of 1944.
9BE7 TIL The Iron Maiden, a medieval torture device, never actually existed for that purpose. It was created by a museum curator when he added spikes to a female form sarcophagus.
1YDD TIL that the term “bug” for a software malfunction became popular because it was once (in 1947) traced back to a moth stuck in the system.
J9pV TIL that the 5th oldest tree on the planet was burned down by a woman smoking meth.
9Y6DX TIL before police used fingerprints to identify individuals, they used a system called Bertillonage which used several measurements of different body parts. It lost popularity when Leavenworth prison had two inmates with the same name, measurements, and physical appearance.