› added 11 years ago

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TIL according to legend, Cnut, the 11th Century Viking King of England, Denmark and Norway, once commanded the tide to halt. His intent was to prove a point to members of his privy council that no man is all-powerful, and we all must bend to forces beyond our control, such as the tides.

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QLnM TIL that when a statue of George Washington was sent to London, included was some American dirt so as to not violate his vow of never stepping on English soil.
V7VB TIL James Bond villain Yaphet Kotto has expressed that the spy should not be played by a black man, saying “Political correctness be damned, we have to stay with what is literally correct. These roles are not written for black men" and “We have pens to create roles that no one else has established.”
nJNY TIL that since the introduction of atomic time, leap seconds became necessary, resulting in a minute with 61 seconds.. There are approximately 8 leap seconds every decade.
mxn9v TIL William Jennens was the richest commoner in England when he died. He had gone to sign his will but forgot his glasses and brought it home to sign the next day and died before he could. The court case over inheritance was argued for 117 years, until the money was exhausted by legal fees.
GAYyG TIL NASA estimates that Voyager 1 will have enough power to continue communicating until 2025, 48 years after its launch. Its fuel for running the communications equipment, plutonium-238 dioxide, will have decayed too much to generate the required heat to keep them operating.