› added 13 years ago

178

TIL that in Australia, Burger King is called “Hungry Jack’s”

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xVwLo TIL the Boeing 787 needs to be rebooted every 51 days to stop rounding errors causing it to crash
5V9DR TIL that silver fulminate is a high explosive that’s so sensitive, it can be detonated by a falling feather. Larger quantities of it self-detonate under its own weight. Its main use is in children’s novelties like bang snaps.
R7xgQ TIL there was a black samurai named Yasuke. He was owned by a Jesuit missionary who gave him to the Daimyo, Oda Nobunaga. Nobunaga took an interest in him and made him a samurai, teaching him Japanese and giving him a home and a katana.
LkaAr TIL People used to believe that malaria was caused by bad air ("mal aria"). When Spanish Conquistadors founded a city in modern-day Argentina they unknowingly did so beyond the breeding range of mosquitoes, the disease's vector. It became the first malaria-free port, so they named it Buenos Aires.
VB444 TIL that the real-life Georg von Trapp of 'The Sound of Music' fame was previously married to Agathe Whitehead, a British-Austrian heiress and aristocrat, and granddaughter of torpedo inventor Robert Whitehead. The couple had seven children from 1911 to 1921. Agathe died of scarlet fever in 1922.