› added 5 years ago

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TIL "After the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, 365" USAF B-52 Stratofortress heavy bombers "were destroyed under the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty. The aircraft were stripped of usable parts, chopped into five pieces with a 13,000 pound steel blade and sold for scrap at 12 cents per pound."

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9wElB TIL that around 2000 years ago ancient Romans used sophisticated public toilets called latrines which had running water, sponge sticks for cleaning, and even served as places for socializing.
M0pW TIL fracking is exempt from sections of several U.S. laws, including the Clean Water Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act, and CERCLA (aka Superfund)
xVbbB TIL in 1954, Soviet rocket engineer Sergei Korolev could not get funding to pursue a space program, so he planted a fake new-story claiming Russia was going to launch a satellite. The US responded that they were also going to launch one, so the Soviets then agreed to fund the program.
l1AB TIL in 1990, a 15-yo Kuwaiti girl testified to US Congress that Kuwaiti babies were being taken out of their incubators by Iraqi soldiers and left to die. It was later revealed that she was the daughter of an ambassador & that her testimony was part of a PR campaign to sell the war to the public.
4Xgk6 TIL Brown University named their porta potties the "E. Gordon Gee Lavatory Complex" after the former president Gordon Gee cut funding to the arts programs.