› added 8 years ago

192

TIL that in 1976 the mayor of Montreal declared before the Olympic games that “The Olympics can no more lose money than a man can have a baby.” He was wrong. Mismanagement and gross cost overruns left the city with $1.5 billion of debt that wasn’t paid off until 2006.

Read more cbc.ca

via ift.tt

oBEWA TIL that eight years after JFK’s assassination, Jackie Kennedy avoided the public unveiling of their White House portraits, but the Nixons graciously agreed to a secret, private tour for her and her kids. It was her only return visit.
ANAKx TIL In 1906 Andrew Carnegie formed the Simplified Spelling Board to fix spelling in the English language. Teddy Roosevent was ready to impose their recommendations but he and Carnegie disagreed on how to get the public to adopt. So we're still stuck with that "d" and "e" in Wednesday.
kO8o5 TIL that there are currently about 48000 different Christian denominations, and every year that number grows by around 1000
vagK TIL that Bill Gates decided to quit Facebook after being bombarded by friend requests.
4aR5 TIL The human tongue is made of 8 different muscles, 4 of which (called the intrinsic muscles) are not even connected to bone.