› added 9 years ago

364

TIL that the Great Pyramid of Giza used to be a pearly white because of its limestone covering.

Read more fastcodesign.com

via reddit.com

gMNL9 TIL in the 1832 presidential election, Henry Clay won Maryland by 4 votes, or 0.01%. The record for the smallest margin of victory was only beaten by Florida in 2000.
p8mO4 TIL Roughly 2% of the U.S. population, an estimated 620,000 men, died serving in the American Civil War. As a percentage of today's population the toll would have risen as high as 6 million. For every 3 soldiers killed in battle, 5 more died of disease.
QJMYp TIL every major vehicle flown from Cape Canaveral has been wired with a remote explosive destruct system to be used if the vehicle should travel off course and towards populated areas
9wy6G TIL that the mastermind behind the two (2002 and 2005) Bali Bombings and numerous other bombings in Indonesia within that time period was a Malaysian college professor with a PhD from the University of Reading in UK.
7r7OZ TIL The hottest place on Earth lost the title it had held for 90 years, when it was found that the man making the original measurements likely misread the thermometer.