› added 12 years ago

83

TIL that you could bankrupt a country by flooding it with mail, essentially forcing it to hire a horde of mailmen

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J1l5Q TIL in 1973, the US Army made an anti-tank grenade football by hollowing out a Nerf football and filling it with explosive charges. It was thought most American troops were familiar with how to throw a football.
vPyLD TIL over the course of his 23 published adventures, Herge's Tintin was knocked unconscious 43 times. Between 1929 and 1973, he was hit with a rake, a brick, a whisky bottle, an oar, a giant apple, a camel femur, a block of ice, and countless punches and clubs.
KYd49 TIL that the bottom 50% of Americans have only grown their wealth by 65% in the past 30 years, whereas the 51st to 90th percentile grew by 137% and the top 10% grew by 240%.
78nQ7 TIL the Wicked Witch of the West was never given a name in L. Frank Baum's Wizard of Oz books, nor in the film. But in his 1995 novel Wicked, Gregory Maguire gave her the name Elphaba based on L. Frank Baum's initials (L.F.B. = El-pha-ba).
j6PYE TIL that Ronald Reagan opposed a bill that allowed a teacher to be fired for advocating homosexuality.