› added 10 years ago

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TIL An electronic ballot is sent to ISS every four years so that american astronauts can vote.

Read more nasa.gov

via reddit.com

4oaJ TIL that in October of 1981, a soviet Whiskey class submarine ran aground on the south coast of Sweden. This incident became known as “Whiskey on the rocks”.
nrZW TIL that when the Skylab satellite crashed in Australia in 1979, Australia issued the US a fine for littering. NASA didn’t pay the fine.
6E5ew TIL up to 95% of the historic structures in the city of Mecca have been demolished over the last three decades. Many of the sites were over 1000 years old and many were connected to the life and times of the prophet Muhammad and his companions.
wodM TIL that before alarm clocks were invented, there was a profession called a knocker-up, which involved going from client to client and tapping on their windows (or banging on their doors) with long sticks until they were awake. It lasted into the 1920s.
VMK68 TIL Henk Rogers just went to Moscow and tried to buy the rights for Tetris from the Soviet Union. When Rogers arrived at Electronorgtechnica his translator refused to go inside as going to a government agent without proper paperwork was unthinkable. Rogers went in anyways and got rights to Tetris.