› added 9 years ago

184

TIL the reason Britain says “Aluminium” and America says “Aluminum” is due to the Scientist who coined a name for the element being indecisive and using both names in his book

Read more lostinthepond.com

via reddit.com

5Vm7n TIL: Worker ants cannot mate; however, because of the haplodiploid sex-determination system, workers can lay unfertilised eggs that become fully fertile, haploid males.
OGAWX TIL JFK's older brother Joseph was being groomed as a presidential candidate when he was killed in a top-secret flying mission in WWII
P1WxJ TIL in 1969, on Christmas Eve, the president of Equatorial Guinea Francisco Macias Nguema had 150 suspected dissidents executed in the national football stadium in Malabo with the executioners dressed as Santa Claus, while the amplifiers played Mary Hopkin's song "Those Were the Days".
gmb TIL that Nasa handed out 370 pieces of moon rock gathered from the Apollo missions, of these 184 are unaccounted for having been lost or stolen including one now in a Dublin landfill. They have also been offered for sale on the black market for $5m.
W7Ee8 TIL that Muhammad Ali insulted his British opponent Henry Cooper before their 1963 bout. Cooper proceeded to give Ali a punishing fight and knocked him down at one point. Afterwards, Ali conceded that Cooper had given him the fight of his life.