› added 9 years ago

87

TIL there is a common urban legend that there was no looting after the devastating 2011 earthquake in northern Japan. In fact, numerous ATMs were stripped and looted in the weeks following the earthquake.

Read more blacktokyo.com

via reddit.com

N7x0b TIL when Germany invaded Denmark in WWII, George de Hevesy used aqua regia to dissolve 2 golden nobel prize medals from Laue and Frank, to prevent nazis from conviscating them. After the war he precipitated the gold out of the acid and the nobel foundation recast the medals and gave them back.
XEGVk TIL Rachmaninoff created a piece based on an inversion of the melody of a Paganini's theme, by flipping the melody "upside-down", reversing its contour, so (almost) all the rising parts become falling parts.
WkE9X TIL that the platypus is one of the only living mammals that can produce and secrete venom.
KKXa TIL During the filming of Air Force One, Harrison Ford insisted on being punched in the face to add to the physicality of the scenes. Scenes would have to be delayed to wait for the swelling to subside.
4kR4J TIL about Tammie Jo Shults, one of the first female fighter pilots to serve in the United States Navy. On April 17, 2018, Shults successfully landed Southwest Airlines Flight 1380 after an uncontained engine failure ruptured a hole in the aircraft midflight.