› added 9 years ago

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TIL that the Pentagon alone has never been audited, leaving roughly $8.5 trillion in taxpayer dollars unaccounted for since 1996.

Read more reuters.com

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ejM6 TIL Ignaz Semmelweis discovered in 1847 that handwashing cut maternity death by 90%, laying the foundation for modern techniques and becoming known as ‘The Savior of Mothers’. Disbelieved by his peers, he was put in an asylum and died after being beaten, aged 47. Almost nobody attended his funeral.
nO0P TIL that mathematicians living in 16th Century Italy would have math duels to see who was the best. It would be so metal if math duels could still happen today.
9w84B TIL the song 'Seasons in the Sun' was originally written about a man dying of a broken heart while accepting that his wife cheated on him many times, and was written in a brothel in Tangiers
wlYo TIL The brother of China’s last emperor visited Japanese emperor Akhito in 1992 and wished to have his ashes buried in urns in both China and Japan as a hope for peace between the two nations
KYwgB TIL In 1985 an ASAT test program missile launched from a F15A climbing to 36,000 ft, struck and destroyed a satellite in orbit almost 300 miles away moving at 17,500 mph