› added 9 years ago

113

TIL: That the USS Constitution is the oldest commissioned ship still in active service.

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kZo5 TIL that “Ukraine” roughly means “Borderlands”, and was referred to as “the Ukraine” during Soviet times, but no longer.
6nWm TIL that in the Great Depression in the 1930’s, Canada had zero bank failures compared to over 9,000 failed banks in the USA.
KOVYJ TIL of Oxdown, a fictitious village trainee journalists would write about in exams. In 2006 it was decided the exams would use real places instead, and so Oxdown was destroyed in a series of deadly explosions. Trainees had to report on the explosions.
KYwEw TIL About the British Cycling team, mediocre until 2003, when new performance director implemented “aggregation of marginal gains,” leading to 178 world championships, 66 Olympic or Paralympic gold medals, and 5 Tour de France victories over 10 years
v1nDK TIL Mozart's Bassoon Concerto in B-flat major, is the only surviving bassoon concerto of the five concertos that he wrote for it. The bassoon was already a well-established solo instrument in the Baroque period, having inspired Antonio Vivaldi to write 39 concertos for bassoon