› added 2 months ago

5

TIL the U.S. Air Force bombed a Chinese embassy in 1999

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6EvwQ TIL that during the Irish Potato Famine, the poor were hired for useless construction projects called 'famine follies' in order to provide them with work that would not take existing work away from other workers. These included roads in the middle of nowhere, between two seemingly random points.
d8Q49 TIL in 1963 Soviet Engineers Detonated a Nuclear bomb to Put Out a Gas Well Fire
kJZL7 TIL After defeating the French and capturing King Francis in battle 1525, Emperor Charles V agreed to release Francis in exchange for a treaty instead of invading France, which led contemporaries like Machiavelli to call him "mad" and a "fool". As soon as he was released, Francis annuled the treaty
vPxj4 TIL that a prisoner in Division H of Melbourne's Pentridge Prison who went on a hunger strike was found to have Mars Bars in his cell.
e0bDn TIL that every human being has a unique microbial identity. A microbial "trace" is left of us as we move about that is as unique a fingerprint and could one day be used in criminal forensics and bio-metric security.