› added 5 years ago

81

TIL that the AMSAT-OSCAR 7 amateur radio satellite failed in 1981 due to a short circuit in the batteries and was thought dead. But Polish anticommunists found that it still worked when it was exposed to sunlight -- and used it to covertly send messages to activists in other cities and the West.

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mxodO TIL: Parasitic worms can cure or alleviate allergies and suppress the Autoimmune system
BgRZd TIL that in the Bhutan democracy was forced upon people. King made a reforms that removed monarch as a head of state, made a mandatory abdication of kings at the age of 65 and introduced free elections. People were reluctant about these changes but accepted them because they came from the king
8eQj4 TIL Aristotle's History of Animals contains several facts that were deemed fantasy until the 19th century. Such observations include octopuses having a sperm tentacle and dogfish growing inside their mother's body. The book also has obvious errors like assuming flies have four legs.
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