› added 11 years ago

87

TIL Atheists are banned from holding public office by the constitutions of 7 states. Arkansas, Maryland, Mississippi, Texas, Tennessee, South Carolina, & North Carolina: “The following persons shall be disqualified for office: First, any person who shall deny the being of Almighty God.” ART IV,Sec 8

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

xNW5 TIL that, despite having sold 40 million records worldwide, Rick Astley abruptly retired from music in 1993, at the age of 27, in order to spend more time with his newborn daughter. He wouldn’t produce any new material for the next 10 years, and it was another 14 before he went back on tour.
neEe7 TIL 11,000 women were breaking Nazi codes in America during WWII. Among them was Elizebeth Friedman who cracked at least 3 Enigma machines and dozens of different radio circuits to decipher more than 4,000 Nazi messages saving millions of lives. J. Edgar Hoover and the FBI took credit for it.
m11rp TIL the ISS is only weightless because it's in orbit (therefore constantly falling) not because of its distance from the earth. An airplane at the same altitude, under its own power would have 89% as much gravity as the earth's surface.
rRjXW TIL that axolotls are basically real life pokemon that can morph into salamanders when exposed to excessive levels of iodine
aebM TIL that one show during Guns N Roses “Use Your Illusion Tour” was delayed because frontman Axl Rose was watching the movie Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles II: The Secret of the Ooze and refused to take the stage until it had finished.