› added 6 years ago

63

TIL that in the 70s, the U.S government tried to create an artificial reef using concrete jacks and old tires. The reef ended up becoming an ecological disaster as it eroded, causing loose tires to be picked up by hurricanes and collide with natural reefs elsewhere.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

OoD5g TIL the US Coast Guard used to regularly receive phone calls and telegrams from concerned citizens, asking why they hadn't yet rescued the cast members of Gilligan's Island.
R7ZB6 TIL about Steve Rothstein, who bought a lifetime unlimited First Class American Airlines ticket for $250,000. That ticket with his flights (listed as being over 10,000) cost the company over $21,000,000. They terminated his ticket in 2008.
xVZ4o TIL: In the 50s, scientists released a deadly virus to eliminate millions of rabbits.
LQXQd TIL David Bowie's 'Space Oddity', released in July 1969, was banned by the BBC for the duration of the Apollo 11 mission.
jNvNa TIL Charles Barkley was the first black baby born at a segregated, all-white town hospital in Leeds, Alabama and was in the first group of black students at his elementary school.