› added 11 years ago

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TIL that 30 british officers tried to escape POW camp “Castle Colditz” (Oflag IV-C) by digging a tunnel. Because they read the compass wrong, they landed in the wine cellar of a german colonel. There they drank 137 bottles of wine, filled them with their urine and placed them back.

R7AWQ TIL David Bowie hated Gary Numan so much to begin with that he had Numan thrown off the billing of a show they were both booked to appear in
9YjjQ TIL about the Babbs Switch Fire, which killed 35 people attending a party on Christmas Eve when “Santa” knocked a candle off of the tree. New renovations to the building trapped people inside, which led to updated fire codes throughout Oklahoma.
gM0pW TIL of Qin Shi Huang the 1st emperor of China. Obsessed with immortality he sent out quests for magicians & searched for powerful mountains to give him long life. Reportedly, he died from poisoning due to ingesting mercury pills, made by his physicians believing it to be an elixir of immortality.
awBbo TIL A beggar was caught outside a mosque in Kuwait telling worshipers that he badly needed cash and that he had no home. Since it is illegal, he was arrested and police discovered he had over 500,000 Kuwaiti Dinars in his bank account ($1,650,000)
VA1Q TIL that during the 19th century, spiral staircases were installed in firehouse’s to keep the horses from climbing up into the living quarters. These staircases slowed down response time, which led to a new invention: the fireman’s pole.