› added 9 years ago

207

TIL that after flights were grounded on 9/11, one plane was allowed to fly. It carried anti-venom from San Diego to Florida to save the life of a snake keeper suffering from a deadly taipan bite. The only other taipan anti-venom was in New York.

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8eA9K TIL Ethiopia acquired 3 Electric Chairs for capital punishment, but did not have enough reliable electricity to use them in practice. 2 of the chairs were converted to become garden furniture, the remaining was used by their Emperor as a throne.
n1Vr TIL that comparatively little is known about Bełżec, a Nazi extermination camp at which ~0.5 million people died, because evidence of the camp’s existence was almost entirely erased before the war’s end and only 2 survivors were able to give testimony.
x6Opw TIL Alex the Parrot is the only animal ever documented asking a question, and it was an existential one
ep7Mk TIL of the Brahan Seer, a Scottish prophet who stated that when there were 5 bridges built over the River Ness, there would be worldwide chaos. in 1939, the fifth bridge was built, and then Hitler invaded Poland.
5Y7W9 TIL that JFK's famous "we choose to go to the moon" speech was made at Rice University, and the line immediately prior to "we choose to go to the moon" was "Why does Rice play Texas?" People were still laughing as he started that now-famous section of the speech.