› added 2 years ago

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TIL that the White House forbade female staffers and employees from wearing pants instead of skirts until the Energy Crisis of 1973, when building temperatures were lowered and pants were finally allowed.

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MvYW TIL that Duck Hunt works by flashing the screen black when you shoot, except where there are ducks, and a photodiode in the barrel of the gun either picks up the lit area where the ducks are, or it doesn’t, which determines whether your shot hit or missed.
BrEjD TIL that the highest absolute altitude ever achieved by a helicopter (12,440 m) resulted in the engines experiencing a flameout at peak altitude. The pilot then set the record for the longest autorotation used for the unpowered landing of a helicopter.
vP5v8 TIL: Potcake is breed of dog fed the caked remains of cooking pots. It's believed that the original Potcake derived from the Labrador, German Shepherd and Fox Terrier breeds.
oR1ZA TIL in the pre-classical era, the ancient Greeks condoned piracy as a viable profession; it apparently was widespread and "regarded as an entirely honourable way of making a living". References are made to its perfectly normal occurrence in many texts including in Homer's Iliad and Odyssey.
xnWB TIL: There are now more than 100 wild wallabies living on the Isle of Man, between Great Britain & Ireland, after 2 of the Australian marsupials escaped from a wildlife park in the 1970s