› added 5 years ago

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TIL that in 1988 the Australian Parliament "borrowed" the original copy of the Australian Constitution from Britain (it was originally a British Act of Parliament) and simply never gave it back.

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ednn TIL Mt. St Helens erupted while the Grateful Dead were performing ‘Fire on the Mountain’ in Portland, OR on June 12, 1980.
4kaZw TIL that when Kissinger publicly threatened "countermeasures" in a press conference, during the Oil Crisis, if the OAPEC embargo was not lifted, the Saudis responded with threatening further oil cuts and to burn their oil fields if the US military invaded.
QBOk TIL Stanislav Petrov, made the decision not to fire at the United States after a faulty report from the Russian missile detection system that a nuke had been fired, what probably prevented WWIII
BgNRL TIL that in 1944, Germany was spending 75% of it's GDP on military expenditure.
16PW TIL that Tim Duncan wanted to swim in the olympics and only decided to play basketball after the only swimming pool on his island was destroyed by a hurricane.