› added 3 months ago

16

TIL that, when traveling overseas, Queen Elizabeth II did not need a passport. Since all passports were issued in her name, it was unnecessary for The Queen to possess one. All other members of the Royal Family, including The Duke of Edinburgh and The Prince of Wales, have passports.

P44g TIL that MIT and CalTech maintain a “bitter” rivalry despite being 3,000 miles apart. Unlike most rivalries, it’s based largely on pranks–including the theft and transport of an antique cannon from one campus to the other, and the appearance of a “TARDIS” on top of a student hall.
R55M7 TIL after the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, a team of dredges had to work day and night to clear debris from the Columbia River. When they were finished, they’d collected enough material to fill a football field nearly seven miles high.
5Yprp TIL of the Schiphol fly, which is a fly engraved on urinals at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. The psychology is that men will want to "wash" the fly off the urinal so they focus more when urinating, apparently lowering cleaning bills in public bathrooms.
0w4dR TIL that Saturn's rings stretch nearly 250,000 miles wide but are on average only 55 feet thick
Y7WlP TIL in 1890, August Kekulé, who was a German scientist, announced that his discovery of the ring structure of benzene came to him in a dream. Kekulé talked about dancing and whirling atoms. The atoms arranged themselves as a snake. He dreamed of the snake eating its own tail.