› added 11 years ago

120

TIL that thunderstorms create antimatter

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via reddit.com

7rAZx TIL the first Valentine's Day was in 496 named after Saint Valentine. Valentine secretly arranged marriages after a Roman Emperor had banned marriage. Valentine was jailed but fell in love with the jailor's daughter. He was executed on February 14, sending a love letter signed "from your Valentine".
4XjrN TIL that the Olympics have only been postponed or cancelled six times since 1896. Most of these postpones or cancellations were due to war, specifically WWI and WWII.
O5Pa TIL of the “Great Stink”, where the smell of human waste in London was so powerful it affected the work of the House of Commons. Plans were made to evacuate but heavy rains ended the crisis.
pwNG TIL Chile printed a number of 50 peso coins in 2008 that misspelled the name of their country as “Chiie”. No one noticed until 2009, at which point the director of the Mint lost his job.
dedE TIL There is a dutch word that essentially means “To pretend to be doing something important, when really you’re doing nothing.”