› added 5 years ago

86

TIL despite newly-formed states somewhat offsetting those seceded during the US Civil War, total electoral votes Abraham Lincoln needed to win re-election shrank from 152 (out of 303) to to 118 (out of 234).

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

WKj9 TIL in an effort to one-up the Soviets during the late 1950s, the United States planned to hit the moon with a nuclear warhead-tipped ICBM. In the Air Force’s infinite wisdom, however, the plan was scrapped because they felt the public would respond unfavorably to nuking the moon.
ADB5n TIL In 17th century England, the pineapple was a symbol of wealth and luxury. Even security guards were hired to protect pineapples from being stolen. Such as in an 1807 court case where a Mr. Godding was sentenced to seven years transportation to Australia for stealing seven pineapples.
9Bb6 TIL the Super Bowl has required national anthem vocals to be pre-recorded since 1993 when Garth Brooks declined to pre-record and then refused to sing live until a dispute over debuting a music video during the game could be settled, resulting in a delayed kickoff.
0wArp TIL - Hoag's Object is the only known galaxy shaped like a doughnut. Discovered 1950 by Arthur Hoag it has an older yellow core with an outer ring of young blue stars & nothing in between. To add to the conundrum, at the 1 o'clock position there's a smaller version of the galaxy hidden within itself
ENNV TIL After 20 years of playing chess casually I’ve just learned that when you promote pawn in Chess, you can always take Queen in exchange, eventually ending up with 9 Queens max on field