› added 8 years ago

139

TIL That vikings would use stones with polarization properties (like Iceland Spar) to navigate when the sun was not visible.

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mYWy TIL Vice-President Andrew Johnson took his presidential oath while drunk. “Glassy-eyed and smelling of whiskey, he reminded […] pretty much everyone within hearing distance that they owed their positions to ‘plebeians’ such as himself, then kissed the Bible and staggered away”.
dDe0r TIL that in 1962, JFK said there is nothing "more unfortunate than to have soft, chubby, fat-looking children."
R7pNw TIL In 2001, the FBI's computer system was so antiquated that it had no access to the internet and no digital search capabilities.
rRpB0 TIL in 1956, the first modern American mall opened-- the Southdale Shopping Center in Edina, Minnesota. Upon touring, architect Frank Lloyd Wright criticized it "had all the evils of the village street and none of its charm... You should have left downtown downtown." History proved Wright wrong.
DKkr TIL each new US spy satellite under the “Key Hole” program is expected to cost more than the latest Nimitz-class aircraft carriers.