› added 2 years ago

84

TIL that during the French Revolution, the French used a completely different calendar system in an effort to remove all religious and loyalist influence from their calendar. It lasted for about 12 years.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

P19Oe TIL Andre Agassi won 10 of 11 matches after seeing a "tick" in Boris Becker's serve. Agassi could predict where Becker was serving based on whether Becker stuck his tongue out in the middle of his lip or to the left corner of his lip. Agassi told Becker over a pint of beer - after they retired.
PgvV TIL in 1953, a US Scientist named Frank Olsen was administered LSD without his knowledge as part of the MKULTRA program. A week later, Olsen ended up dead. The CIA claimed Olsen jumped from a hotel window, but later paid the family $750K and a 2nd autopsy revealed he was likely assassinated.
YQXr TIL that the US Secret Service has an SUV with anti-IED jammers and anti-missile radar in the presidential motorcade. It is believed that if a rocket is detected, infrared smoke grenades are detonated while the president’s driver activates a thermal-imaging driving system to escape.
a8Bno TIL Rick Marin from the New York Times called the record label Sub-Pop and asked Megan Jasper for a lexicon of Grunge slang. She kept giving him progressively more ridiculous terms as a joke thinking he would call her out on it, but instead he believed every word of it and published them.
9kD TIL: In the three days after the Colorado theatre shooting, the number of people applying for background checks to purchase firearms in Colorado rose 43.5%