› added 6 years ago

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TIL An acre was historically the amount of land tillable by one man behind one ox in one day. Poor farming technologies and the need for farmland to be close to the river means that acres were traditionally long and narrow.

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e0XA5 TIL Bulgaria ended up at war with everyone in 1944 by accident. Bulgaria declared war on Germany due to Soviet pressure, not knowing that the Soviets, tired of waiting, declared war on Bulgaria the same day. By the next day Bulgaria was at war with the USSR, US, UK and Germany all at the same time.
R5Kn8 TIL F1 driver Kimi Raikkonen nearly bankrupted the Lotus team by being too good. His contract said that he would be awarded €50,000 for every championship point scored. Lotus thought their car would be so uncompetitive that year that it would not be a problem. Kimi went on to score 207 points.
d5vQ TIL that in 2011, the RIAA sued Limewire for 72 trillion dollars - more than the GDP of the entire world.
QJMnk TIL in 2002 a DHL flight and Bashkirian Airlines flight collided mid-air, killing everyone. 1.5 years later, a Russian citizen who lost his wife and kids tracked down the ATC employee who was on duty and murdered him.
JYlAQ TIL America sent a 2000 lbs manhole cover into space in 1957 during a series of Nuclear Bomb tests about 5 weeks before Sputnik, effectively winning the space race. During an underground test shot the manhole cover achieved a speed estimated at 6 times orbital escape velocity or about 150 000 mph.