› added 1 month ago

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TIL about the NAWPA, an old plan to divert water from Alaska to the Contiguous US using up to 800 km long reservoirs in Canada that would have flooded large towns and vast salmon habitat

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D1wwY TIL William Henry Harrison, the 9th U.S. president, gave the longest presidential inauguration speech, in pouring rain, from which he contracted a cold that severely worsened, killing him and making him the shortest serving U.S. president.
bZa TIL a roller-coaster called the “Euthanasia Coaster” was designed to kill its passengers
6EVoW TIL the Royal Navy admitted their ships would be empty if they discharged "all the men with homosexual experience". Investigations in the 1960s reveal hundreds of British naval officers were sexually involved with other men, so for national security, discreet homosexuality was mostly ignored.
g5Yy TIL Orson Welles’ radio adaptation of “War of the Worlds” never actually caused a mass panic in 1938. This rumor was created by newspaper journalists in an attempt to discredit radio as a medium because they felt threatened by it.
PYYxZ TIL King Ludwig the Mad built many weird impractical castles all over Bavaria which later inspired the fairy tale castles at Walt Disney parks.