› added 1 year ago

44

TIL Nicolas Cage once searched England and the United States looking for the Holy Grail.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

nePvb TIL During Operation Ivy Bells (wire tapping Soviet underwater communication lines) the USS Seawolf (SSN-575) was almost lost during one of the missions—she was stranded on the bottom after a storm and almost had to use her self-destruct charges to scuttle the ship with her crew.
50YQ TIL during the 1950s, the U.S. military tested nuclear weapons so close to Las Vegas, that you could clearly see the mushroom clouds from downtown Hotels. This became a temporary tourist attraction.
MeDyA TIL about the trials for Rocket Mail. Since 1810 inventors have tried to deliver mail via artillery, and later rockets. In 1959 the US navy fired a cruise missile filled with mail from a submarine to a Naval base in Florida. Despite enthousiasm by the Postmaster General it was a one time thing.
x7P0 TIL Contrary to popular belief, the Egyptian Pyramids were not made by slaves but by paid laborers
oRA6o TIL In the 80s, there was a panic over reports that 1.5 million children per year being abducted in the US, but it turned out to be just bad record keeping.