› added 11 years ago

119

TIL that Latvia has one of the fastest Internet download and upload speeds in the world, and beats out the U.S by a sizable margin.

Read more theatlanticwire.com

via reddit.com

wLZM7 TIL that during World War 1, the Germans disguised one of their ships as a British ship, the RMS Carmania, and sent it out to ambush British vessels. In a hilariously bad stroke of luck, the first ship it encountered was the real RMS Carmania, which promptly sank them.
69MJX TIL Earths Geographical North Pole is actually earths Southern Magnetic Pole.
ADElB TIL Canadians in WW1 regularly executed prisoners and exploited truces. "[He] described the practice of lobbing tins of corned beef into a neighbouring German trench. When the Canadians started hearing happy shouts of “More! Give us more!” they then let loose with an armload of grenades."
8a9LL TIL Norway is one of the wealthiest countries in the world. It has a 'sovereign fund' of $1 trillion, around $200,000 for each of it's 5 million citizens to support future generations.
VMKRD TIL that even though the 21st Amendment ended alcohol prohibition in the US in 1933, the State of Mississippi enforced the law until 1966 and even today, 32 counties are "dry." Cities in some of those counties do sell some alcohol but it still remains entirely prohibited in 8 counties.