› added 4 months ago

16

TIL that after reading Rutherford’s paper on atomic disintegration, Henry Adams wrote in 1902 : “At this rate, thought will be overturned; law replaced by force [...] explosives will reach cosmic violence.” Less than 50 years later, the first nuclear bomb exploded in New Mexico, July 16, 1945.

Read more jstor.org

via reddit.com

4kyw5 TIL After the big banking crisis of Florence in 1340 which wrecked the economy, an obscure laborer named Ciuto Branditi single handedly tried to organise his fellow wool workers into a union. He held assemblies and collected tithes for strike funds. His arrest caused a strike in the wool industry
7BaX TIL that the worlds most powerful nuclear-powered icebreaker which routinely visits North Pole can’t cross the equator and sail to southern hemisphere: the tropicals waters are too warm for it to operate
N7oM8 TIL that there is a TV show titled "I Get That a Lot" in which celebrities take working-class jobs and hidden cameras catch the reactions of bypassers. When recognized, they respond with "I get that a lot" until the end of the show, where they reveal themselves.
YpV1r TIL about the Cheshire Mammoth Cheese, which was a gift to Thomas Jefferson by Elder John Leland that weighed 1235 pounds, and was only made with non-Federalist cows.
amyL TIL in 2000, a Wild Turkey whiskey storage facility caught fire, spilling 17,000 barrels of flaming whiskey into the surrounding woods, catching them ablaze. Twenty percent of the whiskey flowed into the Kentucky River, disrupting its oxygen supply, killing 228,000 fish along 66 miles of the river.