› added 9 years ago

191

TIL In WW2, The Allies estimated German average monthly tank production using statistical analysis of their serial numbers. They were off by one.

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d8On9 TIL that in 427BC Athens sent a ship to Mytilene which had instructions to kill all adult men in the city-state. The next day, Athenians voted to change their decision - a second ship was dispatched. Racing through the night, it reached Mytilene just in time to prevent the massacre from happening.
awYJN TIL while Michael Collins was orbiting the moon, mission control warned of a problem with the shuttle's coolant system. Instead of fixing the problem manually as advised, he flicked the system's switch from auto to manual, then back to auto, and carried on with other chores. The issue self resolved.
JZ8Q TIL that the static on TV is referred to as “hangyafoci” by Hungarians, which translates to “ant soccer”.
ovJK TIL that the atomic clocks aboard GPS satellites are programmed to compensate for time dilation due to General Relativity. Otherwise, after just one day, GPS devices would show coordinates that would be off by around 10Km!
YBG7 TIL When bitten by a coral snake, a Texas man killed the snake by biting off the snake’s head and using the decapitated body as a tourniquet.