› added 8 months ago

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TIL it was common practice to use dynamite to break apart chunks of ammonium nitrate, a highly explosive chemical fertilizer.

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Lk4A9 TIL that an off-brand Olympic Games competition was held in July 1980, called the Liberty Bell Classic, in Philadelphia. It was for the countries that boycotted the 1980 Summer Olympics in Moscow to protest the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan
6Ee4X TIL that at a time when Saudi women were not allowed to drive, Queen Elizabeth II (an avid driver) took King Abdullah for a ride in the royal Land Rover at her Balmoral estate, driving so fast that he implored his translator to tell her to slow down and concentrate on the road.
NXynP TIL that the Bluetooth logo is a combination of two Viking-Era Younger Futhark runes that are analogous to the Latin letters “H” and “B”, initials of King Harald “Bluetooth” Gormsson who united Norway and Denmark in 958 CE, and whose moniker is believed to come from the color of his dead tooth.
EgYE7 TIL Leni Riefenstahl, Nazi propagandist and good friend of Hitler, was the first foreigner to be granted Sudanese citizenship due to her services to the country after she tried to make a documentary about Sudanese culture
GYOYj TIL that B92, a dissident radio station in Serbia, played Public Enemy's 'Fight the Power' on repeat when they were banned from broadcasting news. The song became an anti-Milošević anthem in 1991.