› added 9 years ago

271

TIL That undersea telecommunications cables across the Back Sea were laid during Crimean War in 1855.

Read more atlantic-cable.com

via reddit.com

5VLWQ TIL following backlash to the Morgenthau plan for Germany, President Roosevelt claimed "I have not approved anything like that. I am sure I have not. ... I have no recollection of this at all". Upon being read back what he had signed, Roosevelt said he had "no idea how he could have initialed this"
Wdm9 TIL Mattel once tried to sue Aqua over their song “Barbie Girl”. The judge literally told them to “chill”.
xVk9D TIL that organ donation is on an opt-out basis in Singapore. Citizens who opt-out have a lower priority of receiving an organ should they need one.
dDQlB TIL that systematic rainfall measurement began in India around 400 BC when Kautilya’s Arthashastra described using rain gauges in the form of simple bowls to record seasonal rainfall, which was then used to guide farming and determine taxation.
awYo TIL that, in the aftermath of Katrina, the neighboring town of Gretna, whose levies held, turned away refugees from New Orleans at gunpoint