› added 9 years ago

136

TIL When France set off its first nuclear weapon, it made it more powerful than all the other nation’s first weapons combined. Then set it off in a remote part of Algeria. While they were at war with each other.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

OGD0Y TIL in 1998, a group that was aiming to save historic properties started renovating Ben Franklin's London home. In the process, they found a hidden, no-window room beneath his garden that had the remains of fifteen individuals.
OR17 TIL That people can detect nano-scale wrinkles as small as 13 nanometres while running their fingers upon a seemingly smooth surface. This means that, if your finger was the size of the Earth, you could feel the difference between houses from cars.
AxEB TIL that between 1970 and 1980, 2 billionaire brothers attempted to corner the silver market. They owned an estimated 1/3rd of the world supply when in 1980 the silver price collapsed with 80%. The brothers lost over a billion dollars.
wMgP TIL: Having a child can have a pretty strong negative impact on a person’s happiness. On average, the effect of a new baby on a person’s life in the first year is worse than divorce, worse than unemployment and worse even than the death of a partner.
wdEo TIL That the more successful Roman gladiators endorsed products before commencing a fight and would have their names on the Roman equivalent of billboards.