› added 2 years ago

70

TIL that most national currencies have no backing in precious metals or commodities and have value only by fiat.

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rREYM TIL a British engineer won £1.5 million from a £2 bet. He correctly picked 6 winners in a running jackpot and bet on a horse that had lost 28 races.
6VXl TIL that not until after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy that it was a Federal Crime to murder the President of the United States
0wbBp TIL Most of the Cambodians did not even know that Pol Pot was the head of Khmer Rouge until his communist friends from China “insisted” him to show his face to the world as the leader of Cambodia. Even his family members who were working in the fields did not know he was running the country.
5jaQ TIL that the reason for ABBA’s often wild and garish costumes was due to Swedish tax law. The cost of the clothes was deductible only if they could not be worn other than for performances.
LkMPV TIL about a 3000-year old Chinese tradition called Ghost Marriages, or the marriage of two people who died single. In some cases, the parents of unmarried men buy female corpses so their sons could have a wife in afterlife.