› added 3 years ago

66

TIL that in 1196 AD, Al-Aziz Uthman, Saladin's son and the Sultan of Egypt, attempted to demolish the pyramids, starting with that of Menkaure. Workmen recruited to demolish the pyramid stayed at their job for eight months, but found it almost as expensive to destroy as to build. They mostly failed.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

KOyPQ TIL The consultant hired on Star Trek: Voyager for the development of the Native American Chakotay character had previously been exposed as having faked his Native American ancestry to sell books.
VEJk TIL the creator of WinRar, Ron Dwight, passed away in 2002.
mxvao TIL that shortly after his parents divorce, Johnny Depp dropped out of high school to join a rock band full-time. After 2 weeks he attempted to return to school, but his principal stopped him and told him to continue following his his dream.
MJKm TIL there is an intentionally difficult to use computer language called INTERCAL. it takes seventeen hours to do what C can do in less than half a second.
bVB4 TIL Saddam Hussein had a Qur’an printed in his own blood for his 60th birthday. It took two years and 27 liters of blood for the calligrapher to complete all 114 chapters. The project was the result of Hussein re-embracing his religion after his son Uday survived an assassination attempt.