› added 4 years ago

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TIL that Canberra was chosen to be the capital of Australia because neither Melbourne or Sydney would accept its rival as the permanent national capital.

Read more theguardian.com

via reddit.com

b9pLa TIL, in 1948, a man wore 30-pound, 3-toed lead shoes and stomped around a Florida beach in the night. The footprints lead people to believe that a 15-foot tall penguin was roaming their lands. He kept up the prank for 10 years, visiting various beaches. The hoax wasn't revealed until 40 years later.
awZKZ TIL of HMS Dreadnought, a ship built in 1906. It used such revolutionary technology that a whole new class of battleships named "dreadnoughts" was created. It was the fastest battleship in the world and had 32 guns. However, its only significant action was ramming and sinking a German submarine.
j6VRR TIL along with Germany, Austria-Hungary, and Italy, Romania was secretly also a member of the Triple Alliance before WW1 because of the King of Romania's ties to Germany. Later, like with Italy, it decided to stay neutral at first and then joined the Allied Powers.
BgaPe TIL about Craig Shergold, a former cancer patient who requested greeting cards to try and beat the record for "most greeting cards received". The number stood at 1,000,065. Shergold broke the record and obtained 350 million cards throughout his life until he requested for them to stop.
4XQON TIL of 67 yr-old 4'10" 100 lb Lorenza Marrujo, aka “Lady Ninja” who has a black belt in jiujitsu. When she saw a 5'9" 170 lb man attacking her friend, Lorenza bent his fingers back, hit him twice with her elbow in his sternum, and pinned him to the floor with knees on neck & chest till help arrived.