› added 4 years ago

193

TIL after the Reagan assassination attempt, the top aides didn’t have the briefcase containing the codes for launching nuclear missiles, the Veep was unavailable, & no-one knew what to do. A Soviet sub then moved closer than usual to the US.

Read more news.bbc.co.uk

via reddit.com

BVax TIL that even though many people cite the PISA test scores as a source that Americans are behind in education, the test scores show that Americans beat every other OECD country when controlling for poverty in schools.
Z8v1R TIL that the shamisen, a Japanese stringed instrument, was traditionally made of dog or cat skin
0Np TIL a French writer managed to write a 300 pages novel, entirely without using the letter ‘e’
WkV6X TIL 50 Cent challenged Floyd Mayweather to read one full page of a 'Harry Potter' book out loud without starting and stopping or messing up. If Floyd Mayweather accomplished this, 50 Cent agreed to donate $750,000 to a charity of Mayweather’s choice. Floyd Mayweather ultimately declined the offer.
vaPL TIL that in August and September of 2006, Danger Mouse collaborated with British graffiti artist Banksy to replace 500 copies of Paris Hilton’s album “Paris” in English music stores with altered album artwork and a 40 minute instrumental song containing various statements she had made.