› added 5 years ago

88

TIL that Japan has Imperial and National Shinto shrines in each prefecture. They are also ranked based on the amount of government support or association with the Imperial family. Some shrines are called "Ichinomiya", making them the highest-ranking shrines in their prefectures.

m1pVx TIL that before the California Gold Rush, there was one in North Carolina in 1799! A 12-year-old named Conrad Reed found a 17-pound gold nugget while playing in a creek and used it as a doorstop for three years. When his family realized its value, they started the first gold rush in America!
ADM54 TIL: in 1898, Jim White saw bats flying into a tiny hole in the ground, so he crawled down in. The hole led to a cave so big that as he explored it's depths his lantern would burn out and he had to find his way back in pitch blackness by memory. It is now the national park known as Carlsbad Caverns.
9Y7BM TIL that during the hunt for Radovan Karadzic, a member of the US Seals dressed in a gorilla uniform, in the hope that Karadzic's bodyguard would be so dumbfounded at seeing one in Yugoslavia, they'd slow down enabling an attack by US forces.
V090 TIL An eagle was given a 3d-printed prostate beak after her real one was damaged after being shot.
MeAaB TIL Christopher Boyce, a college drop out who despised the CIA was given high level security clearance to handle top secret CIA wires. He then sold these top level secrets to the Soviet Union through its embassy in Mexico City. The story was a top selling book and movie "The Falcon and the Snowman"