› added 5 years ago

327

TIL: Saturn’s rings are only about 100 yards thick

Read more caps.gsfc.nasa.gov

via reddit.com

VMpZp TIL that a Marine called customer service when his M107 .50 caliber sniper rifle failed during a gunfight with the Taliban. After several minutes the weapon was back in service.
YpYxG TIL that during the UK general election of 1880, a well-presented book about one of the candidates was widely circulated, named "Political Achievements of the Earl of Dalkeith". Spoiler alert, it contained 32 empty pages.
dD0Pr TIL Walt Disney World was supposed to be built in East New Orleans, the site where JazzLand, later renamed Six Flags New Orleans, would be built.
W7ZJL TIL that Nickelodeon almost cancelled Hey Arnold’s Christmas episode because they thought kids wouldn't care about its portrayal of the Vietnam War. An executive revoked the decision when her nine-year-old son saw a rough cut of the episode and asked 'Mom, is that what Vietnam was all about?'.
woOKY TIL of "Historia Piscium," a book about fishes published in 1686 by the Royal Society. The book sold so poorly that the Society reneged on funding Isaac Newton's "Principia". Clerk Edmund Halley funded Principia himself; the Society later paid him with unsold copies of Historia