› added 5 years ago

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TIL South Africa developed nukes and voluntarily dismantled them. It's the only country in history to do this.

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oRRpo TIL that the term "blowing smoke up their butt/behind/arse" derives from the 1700s when blowing tobacco smoke in someone's anus was a method used for resuscitating drowning victims.
xVvp1 TIL: Sexagesimal (base 60) is a numeral system with sixty as its base. It originated with the ancient Sumerians in the 3rd millennium BC, was passed down to the ancient Babylonians, and is still used—in a modified form—for measuring time, angles, and geographic coordinates.
1ayjO TIL the last words of William Chapman, who was unarmed with his hands up before being shot by a cop in front of a Wal-Mart were reportedly "Are you going to fucking shoot me?"
9YpD7 TIL a US dog grooming service suffered cancellations and received threats after a Facebook review claiming a groomer injured a dog. Video later proved the dog had been hit by a car as the owner's relative walked it unleashed hours after the grooming
4XDyg TIL as early as 839 AD, Swedes & Scandanavians served as mercenaries in the Byzantine army. Swedish men left to enlist in such numbers that a new law "Västgötalagen" was created that said no one could inherit while staying in Greece to stop emigration.