› added 8 years ago

816

TIL The CIA has backed 7 coups around the world

Read more foreignpolicy.com

via reddit.com

nM9Y TIL of Arithmomania, a compulsion suffered by vampires to count seeds or grains of rice, ergo why on the American TV show Sesame Street, the character Count von Count is always shown counting various objects
kM4m TIL bowling lanes have a very thin patterned coat of oil that is crucial to consistently landing a strike.
x6o5o TIL the KGB once smuggled a Sidewinder missile from West Germany by mailing it in pieces to Moscow. An agent earlier broke it through the back window of his Mercedes to drive back from the airbase, marked with a red cloth as required by law. He had brought it down the entire runway in a wheelbarrow.
l7D5r TIL the horse head in The Godfather was real, from a dog food factory. Director Coppola felt the prop looked fake, and the art director found a horse already set to be killed for dog food, so Coppola asked for the head. Actor John Marley wasn’t told it replaced the fake, so his screams were genuine.
bnXp TIL that when vandals in Billings, Mont., targeted Jewish families by smashing windows where menorahs were being displayed, thousands of non-Jewish residents displayed menorahs in their own windows in a show of solidarity, bringing a stop to the attacks.