› added 11 years ago

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TIL After John F Kennedy’s WWII PT boat was sunk he wrote a message on a coconut asking for help. The coconut message worked. Kennedy kept the coconut and it became a Presidential paperweight.

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OovYX TIL the reason why the clutch, brake, and accelerator are in the same order in modern cars is because the British government needed civilian cars to be standardized in case they had to be commandeered and driven by soldiers during WW1
WkmNA TIL that a bridge built in the 90s over the Choluteca River, Honduras was hit by Hurricane Mitch and whilst the bridge survived, the river below it was rerouted and no longer flowed under the bridge.
nKl7 TIL Due to Studio Ghibli’s retention of the merchandising rights to Spirited Away. Disney’s advertising was limited, and Spirited Away was only mentioned in a small scrolling section on Disney’s official website. The promotion of the film was given a worse treatment than Disney’s own B-movies.
vP1NB TIL about the Carrington Event: in 1859 a massive solar flare spewed electrified gas and subatomic particles toward Earth, wreaking havoc on telegraph networks. Today it would stop our “modern life” for weeks.
ZpVg4 TIL about Whipping Tom of 1681, a nickname given to a serial spanker in London. He would wait for an unaccompanied woman, grab her, lift her dress and slap her buttocks whiles shouting "Spanko!" before fleeing. Vigilantes would dress in women's clothing and patrol the areas he was known to operate.