› added 9 years ago

346

TIL “Chimney Sweeps” were originally enslaved children who would shimmy up a chimney with a cleaning brush - and oftentimes they would get stuck in the process and die. The deaths were so common that brick masons developed a technique to open chimneys and extract bodies quickly.

4RRb TIL during the Cuban missile crisis a Soviet Submarine came under attack from depth charges, the captain assumed WW3 had started and prepared to launch a nuclear weapon, his executive officer overruled him. It turned out the depth charges were training rounds being used to signal them to surface.
W78N TIL- during WW1, around the Christmas of 1914, groups of soldiers held unofficial ceasefires. Opposing soldiers exchanged food and souvenirs. Some sang carols and played football together, and remained friends after the war. This is now referred to as the “Christmas Truce” +1 for humanity
X0LA6 TIL that the first 35 NASA space shuttle astronauts were nicknamed TFNG. The official meaning was "Thirty-Five New Guys", but the real meaning was "The Fucking New Guy", military slang for newcomers to a unit.
GZO7 TIL Kars 4 Kids, invests less than half of their donations to Kids, and instead loses millions on failed real estate holdings and religious conversion day camps. They’re being investigated by the attorney general’s office in two states.
7XZO TIL posthumous marriage is legal in France, if one fiancé(e) dies before the wedding. “I do” is replaced with “I did”, and “until death do us part” is omitted.