› added 6 years ago

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TIL that Oliver North solicited $10,000,000 from the Sultan of Brunei as a way around US rules on funding Contras in Nicaragua. The money never went to them, but to a Swiss businessman instead because North entered the wrong bank account number.

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via reddit.com

O5Pa TIL of the “Great Stink”, where the smell of human waste in London was so powerful it affected the work of the House of Commons. Plans were made to evacuate but heavy rains ended the crisis.
jKyN TIL In the Mid 80’s, the United States Navy claimed they were searching for the SS Titanic as a cover to find the sunken nuclear attack submarine, the USS Thresher. They accidentally found the Titanic.
e1bk TIL that legionaries in the Roman Empire enjoyed considerable disposable income, enhanced by cash bonuses on special occasions such as the accession of a new Emperor. On completion of their term of service (25 years) they were given farmland and a discharge bonus equal to 13 years salary.
9YOPQ TIL that Mike Myers thought up the Austin Powers character while driving home one day. His radio was playing Burt Bacharach’s “The Look of Love”, and he was with his then-wife Robin Ruzan. Myers asked her if he was “making her horny”. She told him to stop it and write his new character down.
1aeQV TIL that ever since James Bond’s very first appearance as a character (nearly 70 years ago in the 1953 novel Casino Royale), all the way through every single book and movie adaptation, there has been exactly one monarch of Britain: Queen Elizabeth II.