› added 9 years ago

167

TIL that IRA snipers killed about 200 British soldiers/policemen from 1971 to 1997, and even shot down army helicopters. A “Sniper at Work” sign warned soldiers of the danger.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

Z87Pp TIL during a coup attempt in 1972, four Moroccan pilots intercepted a Boeing 727 carrying the Moroccan King and fired on it. The King (himself a pilot), grabbed the radio and told the rebel pilots, “Stop firing! The tyrant is dead!” Fooled, the rebels broke off their attack and the coup failed.
VMd44 TIL that Kim Jong-Il was said to be a huge film fan, owning a collection of more than 20,000 video tapes and DVDs. His reported favorite movie franchises included James Bond, Friday the 13th, Rambo, Godzilla and Hong Kong action cinema
jNxLp TIL String cheese is made by heating mozzarella to 60 °C which causes the milk proteins to line up. They can then be peeled off in strings.
4da6 TIL that the Hercules beetle, despite weighing only 100 grams, can lift 8 kilograms, making it one of the proportionally strongest animals in the world.
j6J9n TIL in 1971 a Time Dilation experiment had 2 flights w/atomic clocks go around the world to prove Einstein's theories of relativity (time moves slower as you approach the speed of light, and/or when exposed to more gravity). The clocks gained 0.15 microseconds compared to the ground based clock.