› added 12 years ago

80

TIL Ronald Reagan once joked on a un-aired NPR broadcast that the US had declared war on Russia, the broadcast was later leaked and caused a portion of the Soviet Army to go on alert for 30 minutes.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

b9RJ9 TIL during the Kent State shootings, where the National Guard shot at and killed students protesting the Vietnam War, 58% of Americans believe it was the students' fault for the shootings
9g1M TIL Astronauts have to sleep near a ventilator fan or they risk suffocating in a bubble of their own exhaled carbon dioxide
aKXL TIL that in the German version of Die Hard, the villain Hans Gruber is rewritten to be Irish, not German, and renamed Jack Gruber
vP1A7 TIL ventriloquists have to carefully script their acts to avoid words with any "f", "v", "b", "p", or "m" sounds. These consonants require the lips to move, which would ruin the act.
6V9l TIL Nick Cave wrote a script for a Gladiator sequel in which Maximus fights Roman gods in the afterlife, is reincarnated, defends early Christians, and ultimately lives forever. Eventually leading tanks in the second world war and even working in the modern-day Pentagon.