› added 12 years ago

182

TIL Bill Clinton lost the nuclear launch codes for several months

Read more telegraph.co.uk

via reddit.com

wGL1 TIL that a fire in Mecca, Saudi Arabia in 2002 killed 15 school girls. The girls were not allowed to leave the burning building by the state’s religious police because they were not wearing correct Islamic dress.
vPka7 TIL that in 1946-1947 a British ski champion stole & vandalized over 3000 butterfly specimens from Australian museums, and they're still trying to sort out the damage
QJ06e TIL: A member of Al Capone's gang promised federal agent Eliot Ness that $2000 (around $33,250 in today's money) would be on his desk every Monday if he turned a blind eye to their bootlegging. Ness refused the bribe and in later years struggled with money; he died almost broke at the age of 54.
ADndx TIL about “crazy ants” that often form colonies within electrical equipment and can cause problems in all kinds of electrical systems similar to termites in wood.
wLNDE TIL to call someone a monitor lizard in thailand is one of the worst insults or curses in the thai language. so much that people have been killed over it and a politician who called protesters this made front page news. it's so offensive its basically banned in broadcast media.