› added 8 years ago

171

TIL the 1977 New York City blackout resulted in numerous looters stealing DJ equipment from electronics stores, resulting in the hip hop genre, barely known outside the Bronx at the time, which grew at an astounding rate from 1977 onward.

x6Dgb TIL a farmer cut off his own leg with a 4-inch pocket knife to free himself from a grain auger. After his leg got stuck, he kept getting pulled in deeper & deeper and with nobody around to help, he had to cut off his leg before time ran out. He then crawled 150 feet to a landline to call for help.
6EMxl TIL why you paid more for your hard disk in 2012: after Saudi Arabian oil company Saudi Aramco was hit by targeted malware W32.DistTrack.Shamoon, its owners sent out the company's private airplane fleet abroad to purchase every available hard drive, causing their global shortage and price increase.
W71jY TIL the unique, vibrant shade of blue known as "Voronet blue" used for paintings at the Voronet Monastery (Sistine Chapel of the East), Romania, contains a paint substance still unknown today. In 1488 builder Stephen the Great ("the athlete of Christ") finished the monastery in 3 mths, 3 wks, 3 days
v1BJ8 TIL that in the early 1800’s the Russians tried to invade Hawaii, which was an independent kingdom at the time. However, a force of natives and American traders expelled them and forced them to return to Russia.
GYD01 TIL that there is a hotel made of salt in Bolivia with a strict rule of not licking the walls.