› added 2 years ago

171

TIL the longest and most contentious election for the speaker of the U.S House of Representatives occurred during its 34th Congress (1855-1857). It lasted two months, took 133 ballots, and necessitated a rule change allowing for a simple plurality of members to select the speaker.

Read more history.house.gov

via reddit.com

0jgy TIL During a 1978 Monday Night Football game, to fill dead air, Howard Cosell commented on a delicious new snack he was eating, thus stadium nachos went mainstream.
dDlXE TIL that in the movie Poltergeist they used real skeletons as props because it was cheaper than making plastic fake ones.
8eMJb TIL That Harrison Ford was once a roadie for The Doors
64oY TIL 37 years before Pearl Harbor, Japan launched a surprise attack on Russia, destroying much of the Russian fleet at Port Arthur. US officials applauded the attack for its ingenuity.
YpEMP TIL in the Pliocene, 3 million years ago, the world was about 2C warmer than now, and sea levels were somewhere between 10M and 40M higher than now. 2C is also the rise we hope to keep below by 2100.