› added 11 years ago

54

TIL Ronald Reagan won less than 60% of the popular vote in the 1984 general election despite winning nearly 98% of the electoral vote

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kOXGe TIL of the Teapot Dome Scandal: Between 1921-1923 during Harden's presidency, the Secretary of the Interior, Albert Fall, secretly leased federal oil reserves to the Mammoth Oil Company in exchange for $200k worth of liberty bonds. He became the first Cabinet secretary to go to prison.
VMV04 TIL that in the 70s the US and Soviet baby feared the other had developed a new antisubmarine weapon that damaged wires rubber attached to probes due to deep circle holes left in the rubber, it turns out that these were in fact the bite marks of the relatively unknown cookie cutter sharks
1aMED TIL that the longest siege in history happened in the 17th century and lasted 21yrs.
MNN7 TIL that because blood only has a shelf life of approximately 42 days, after 9/11 and the flood of blood donations the Red Cross had to throw out all of the surplus blood, and experienced a shortage.
QNjyp TIL that sea otters hold hands while sleeping to avoid drifting apart.