› added 9 years ago

117

TIL German citizens can travel to 177 territories without a visa/visa given on arrival, the most in the world.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

grPZA TIL the Danube is the river that passes through most countries in the world, crossing ten countries (Germany, Austria, Slovakia, Hungary, Croatia, Serbia, Romania, Bulgaria, Moldova and Ukraine).
kOPLm TIL: The Library of Alexandria, one of the largest ancient stores of knowledge, burned down, losing anywhere between 40k - 400k scrolls. It is said that even today, scholars still mourn its loss as one of the largest known scholarly losses of all time.
R5gZQ TIL the peregrine falcon is the fastest animal in the world and can go as fast as 300 km (186 miles) per hour using their dive technique
7rd8L TIL the word "stereotype" originally referred only to a printing process that allows for the consistent reproduction of a single plate of type and images. "Cliché" meant the sound of molten metal hitting stereotype printing mold.
78ldO TIL that from the beginning of the Cold War to 1978, the US Army created a fictionalised opposing force known as the Aggressor Republic to train against in war games. The fictional Mediterranean nation was detailed enough that it had its own backstory and unique forces structure [PDF warning]