› added 11 years ago

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TIL Pres Nixon invited Johnny Cash to perform 2 songs at the White House that deride hippy culture & welfare queens. Cash accepted the invite but instead played “The Ballad of Ira Hayes” (a mistreated Native American WWII vet), “What Is Truth” (pro-hippy), & “Man in Black” (anti-income inequality)

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Z85Wv TIL the cap of the Washington Monument contains 100 ounces of pure aluminum. Aluminum was one of the rarest and most valuable metals in the world – more valuable than silver – when the building was constructed in the 1850s.
rRL9W TIL about Vinnytsia, a town in Ukraine that was built as a fake American small town to train Russian spies during the Cold War. It Even included a population of retired deep cover agents to pretend to be American policeman and grocery store clerks.
WkRKX TIL Walt Disney had a neat little private apartment above the fire house off the Town Square in Disneyland complete with with a 2nd floor terrace. Even today there is always a lamp burning in the window above the old firehouse
VMarB TIL British breweries donated free beer to soldiers during WWII, but after D-Day, there was no room for it on the ships going across the English Channel. Spitfire mechanics and pilots worked together to modify pylons to carry beer kegs and deliver brews to the troops. Flying high enough chilled it.
j6Nlj TIL Pale Ale exists because the fuel source for brewing beer changed. Peat and coal were used to roast malt, imparting a dark color and smoky flavor to beers. But when coke fuel, a cleaner-burning fuel derived from coal, was introduced, the color and smoky flavor were not present, they had pale ale.