› added 9 months ago

27

TIL that in the early days of Fed-Ex, there was one time the company couldn't afford the fuel bill for their planes, so the founder took the company's last $5,000 and went to Las Vegas and won $27,000 playing blackjack, and kept the company afloat.

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9wWRp TIL that Adobe Flash is discontinued everywhere - except for in China, where it is still used
N7ELe TIL the song 1985 by Bowling For Soup is actually a cover, the original being released a year earlier by SR-71
N7en1 TIL that Gavrilo Princip, the man that assassinated Franz Ferdinand and started WW1, was arrested and in prison he contracted Skeletal Tubercolisis which started eating his bones so badly that his arm was amputated and weighted 40 kilograms (88 pounds).
e0YW4 TIL of the Kengir Gulag Uprising, where inmates assumed control over a camp. Due to the large body of educated inmates the 40 days of freedom saw the creation of plays, an ex-noble organizing a café, priests organizing marriages, engineers creating improvised radios and a hydroelectric powerstation
rRvVe TIL the Mayans customized their teeth. They would carve holes into their teeth and fill the spaces with different stone inlays. They used minerals like jadeite, hematite, pyrite and turquoise. The stones also had specific meanings as jade may have symbolized pure breath or elegant speech.