› added 9 years ago

1307

TIL that the Channel Tunnel, a rail tunnel with the longest undersea portion of any tunnel in the world, has full mobile phone coverage.

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Blvb TIL Jack O'Lanterns started in 18th century Ireland and were originally carved into turnips. These turnips were used to ward away the evil spirit of a blacksmith named Jack. When the Irish came to America, turnips were hard to find, but pumpkins weren’t, and thus the pumpkin carving became tradition
AD4N7 TIL after a Baptist church ran a newspaper ad calling beer "The Devil's Craft," a taproom began accepting it as a coupon for discounted beer
b78N TIL Robert Smith (of The Cure) at 29 years old was severely depressed as no rock n roll band had put out a masterpiece album in their late 20’s. He then made “Disintegration” about that subject; it’s regarded as a masterpiece.
R5jBa TIL of the Iftar Cannon, an Egyptian tradition of signaling the end of a day's fasting period during Ramadan by firing a single cannon shot at sundown. As a result, some homes and hotels use prop cannons as a type of Ramadan decoration.
v19ar TIL that former Waffen-SS soldiers guarded Nazi War Criminals during the Nuremburg Tribunal. This was because the soldiers were Latvian conscripts and did not choose to become soldiers out of their own free will, thus clearing their names and allowing their skills to continue to be put to use.