› added 12 years ago

389

TIL that driving the Bugatti Veyron at its top speed of 253 mph will drain its 26.4 gallon tank in 19 minutes.

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Gkg1 TIL that Stephen Colbert is a huge J.R.R. Tolkien geek and has encyclopedic knowledge of the subject. Director Peter Jackson invited him to the set of the film and put him head to head with his Tolkien expert, and Stephen won.
OoNR7 TIL that in the 12th century, Bologna [Italy] had up to 180 towers as high as 97 metres [318 feet] which made it look like a medieval manhattan.
QJBmp TIL that Elton John was the first artist from the west allowed to perform in Russia during the Cold War. While there, Elton was given a Russian 'interpreter', who he knew was a KGB spy. He seduced the spy and made love to him on the rooftop of the hotel he was staying in.
KYr4 TIL That a team of escaped Polish pilots, Squadron 303, claimed the highest number of kills of any Allied Squadron in WWII: they were only 5% of the active pilots in the Battle of Britain but were responsible for 12% of total victories.
VV8k TIL that due to a popular anime cartoon, thousands of raccoons were imported from North America for Japanese children to keep as pets. When the cartoon’s protagonist later released his raccoon into the wild on the show, many of the pet owners did the same, creating chaos in the ecosystem to this day