› added 1 year ago

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TIL: Bananas are slightly radioactive and truckloads of them can cause false alarms at radiation portal monitors (the things that detect nuclear material at the ports)

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via reddit.com

BrvXD TIL that the last casualty of the Civil War was the death of Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain, who after being wounded Battle of Petersburg in 1864 "lingered" until he finally died of his war wounds in 1914. Between his wounding and death he won the medal of honor and was elected Governor of Maine.
ndZY TIL a madman in San Francisco declared himself, “Emperor of America and Protector of Mexico.” The people were such good sports about it that they honored his regal decrees and the currency he created was widely accepted around the city. 30,000 attended his funeral
N7jOE TIL in 1976, 2 NASCAR Cars raced in the 24 Hours of Le Mans.
WG8o TIL after multiple disputes with his town Marvin Heemeyer constructed a concrete/steel armor-plated bulldozer “Killdozer” to destroy those who had sided against him. His rampage destroyed 13 buildings & was unstoppable by Police/SWAT until the dozer stalled. He killed himself & was the only casualty
vPpx8 TIL that after hurricane Katrina, due to miscalculation, FEMA had 85M pounds of ice at storage facilites around the U.S and melted it two years later after 12.5 million dollars in storage fees.