› added 12 years ago

167

TIL more US presidents have died on July 4 than any other day.

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OoeVY TIL Vesta Stoudt, the mother of two Navy Sailors wrote a letter to President Roosevelt explaing the way ammunition was packed often didn’t work. She suggested a rippable cloth based tape, leading to the invention of duct tape.
Wk1P9 TIL ancient swords from 'Damascus' (Syria) dipped in 'Dragon's Blood,' as legend has it, were studied by scientists who further dipped the metal, 'wootz,' in hydrochloric acid to reveal, under an electron-microscope, nano-metre-sized tubes with a microstructure similar to modern carbon nanotubes.
7r9Bx TIL about Burning Mountain in Australia, where a coal seam has been burning nonstop for 6000 years
YpEnx TIL the constitution of Alabama is the longest and most amended constitution still operative anywhere in the world.
0wL7L TIL Thomas Marshall - Vice President under Woodrow Wilson - once fell for a false rumor that Wilson had died. He was at Church at the time he received the false news, and - believing he was now President - announced the news to his congregation. He only later found our that Wilson was still alive