› added 6 years ago

64

TIL that despite China spanning five different time zones, the entire country uses the same time: Beijing Time (UTC+8:00). This causes sunrise to come as late as 9 am, during winter, and sunset to come as late as 9 pm, during summer, in certain parts of China.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

l7Ba1 TIL: 1897, the Buffalo Soldiers 25th Infantry Regiment Bicycle Corps embarked on a 1,900-mile journey from Montana to Missouri.
Me9Z0 TIL that Cormac McCarthy has typed every one of his novels on a mechanical typewriter (about 5 million words) and that at auction it was expected to sell for $15,000, it went for $254,000.
Z865Q TIL that during the U.S. Civil War, Andrew Carnegie was drafted for the Army; however, rather than serve, he paid another man $850 to report for duty in his place, a common practice at the time.
NweM TIL that Zambia had a space program in the 1960s. It consisted of a grade school science teacher, a teenage girl and her cat, and a missionary.
QJmL9 TIL Taffy Nivert and Bill Danoff, two of the lead singers for Starland Vocal Band (Afternoon Delight), were writing "Take Me Home, Country Roads" and planned to sell it to Johnny Cash, but during a tour with John Denver the three finished the song, which became Denver's signature hit.