› added 11 years ago

57

TIL that soldiers erroneously believed that the Ace in a pack of Bicycle playing cards was a symbol of death to the Viet Cong army and would scatter them around the jungle.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

pgAZ TIL that ants make up 15% of all terrestrial animal biomass, and there are 10 thousand trillion ants on the planet
lo9vB TIL that children (and adults) in the US were tattooed with their ABO Blood group and Rhesus factor(Rh) by schools in the 1950s. With Cold War at its peak, children were included in this program to cover potential shortages in blood banks in case of a Soviet Union attack.
4kkow TIL that after the Shah of Iran's overthrow, he was reluctantly given medical treatment in Panama. Panama assigned him a "militantly Marxist sociology professor" as a chief bodyguard who "spent much time lecturing the Shah on how he deserved his fate" and was charged $21,000 a month for rent.
Ov4g TIL in 1940 two Royal Australian Air Force training airplanes collided in mid-air, becoming locked together. As the aircraft were traveling in the same direction, they became an impromptu biplane and we’re landed safely by the pilot of the upper plane. There were no deaths.
J1BY1 TIL a 1977 PSA film named "Apaches" was shown in primary schools to promote safety on farms. Six children in the film die in farm-related accidents throughout the film as they pretend to be "Apache warriors." The end credits list multiple real life victims of farm accidents.