› added 9 years ago

188

TIL that China invented fireworks, but Italy gave them color. Colors are created using metallic powders. Calcium makes orange, sodium makes yellow, and barium makes green. Also, cylindrical tubes create whistling sounds, aluminum flakes make hissing noises, and flash powder makes the loud “booms.”

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e0lPb TIL - Disney banned balloons and plastic drinking straws in their Animal Kingdom Park to protect the animals from accidental ingestion.
VMNbp TIL one of the main reasons Haiti is such a poor country. After fighting and winning their independence from France, they were given an ultimatum; They either had to pay France $21 Billion dollars in reparations, or come under attack by the heavily armed warships France had dispatched.
6EYDl TIL about the Kearny fallout meter, designed such that someone with a normal mechanical ability would be able to construct it before or during a nuclear attack, using common household items
vPEr7 TIL about "The Party of Moderate Progress Within the Bounds of the Law", an Austro-Hungarian center-left Joke Political Party made to mock the cautious and measured approach of some mainstream political parties of the time.
gMZ5D TIL that in an effort to make smoking "safer" one company decided to add a new, high-tech filter to their cigarettes. The filter was made out of asbestos. This decision did not end well.