› added 3 years ago

140

TIL that US president Jimmy Carter issued a state of emergency in 1979 that is still active today, over 40 years later. This state of emergency gives "extra ordinary powers" to the president to "seize property, call up the National Guard and hire and fire military officers at will."

aw5ZJ TIL 'Red Cross' goes by Red Crescent in most of the Islamic countries as the Ottomans deemed the 'Cross' offensive to their religious sensibilities despite it being derived from the Swiss Flag . In 1983 the name of the organization was changed to "International Red Cross & Red Crescent Movement"
BgoWd TIL of Greek physician Georgios Papanikolaou, who invented the Papanikolaou, or “Pap” test, also known as a Pap Smear. This medical break-through provides low-cost, easily performed screening for early detection of cancerous and precancerous cells
m1BM TIL A younger vision of Leonardo da Vinci’s “Mona Lisa” will be presented in Geneva with the suggestion that it is the original version of what has been called the world’s most famous painting.
EgDKW TIL Justice Frankfurter disliked Chief Justice Vinson to such a degree that when the issue of segregation came before the Court and Chief Justice Vinson, a segregationist, suddenly died; Frankfurter remarked on it as: "the first solid piece of evidence I've ever had that there really is a God"
LkGg9 TIL towards the end of filming the first Harry Potter film, Daniel Radcliffe's voice broke. For the final filmed scenes, a "soundalike" child actor, Joe Sowerbutts, was recruited to overdub his lines in post-production.