› added 4 years ago

164

TIL 17% of the GNP of Isle of Man comes from gambling and insurance.

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0K0L TIL when Beethoven was challenged to an improvisation duel by one of his rivals named Steibelt, Beethoven took a piece of Steibelt’s music, turned it upside down, played it, then improvised on that theme for over an hour. Steibelt simply left halfway through.
YYxP TIL the Great Famine of Ireland caused so many deaths, that Ireland’s population still has not recovered (after 150 years)
ZrPp TIL that there is a bell in Oxford University library that hasn’t stopped ringing for 175 years. Researchers are afraid that opening the bell would ruin an experiment to see how long it will last.
loZLV TIL the "Austrian Association of Hiking, Sports and Society" was a CIA-funded paramiltary group created to engage in guerilla warfare in case of a Soviet invasion in Austria
N7yj1 TIL three overworked astronauts aboard Skylab mutinied by turning off radio communications with mission control for several hours. They were never allowed in space again.