› added 4 years ago

108

TIL a small town in Minnesota attempted to secede from the United States, as it could not get funding to fix it's water system, and believed that it would be easier to accept foreign aid. It received it's first "aid" in the form of a Ford squad car, and 10 cases of Jeno's Sausage Pizza Mix.

gr6nX TIL The bomb dropped on Hiroshima (Little Boy) converted only about 0.7 grams of mass to energy. This is roughly 1/3 the mass of a dime.
g7KX TIL that 12 African nations have come together pledging to build a 15 kilometer wide band of trees that will stretch all the way across Africa, 7500 kilometer, in order to stop the progressive advancement of the Sahara.
JEJl TIL that, since 1950, acceptance of an Academy Award statuette requires that neither winners nor their heirs may sell the statuettes without first offering to sell them back to the Academy for US$1. If a winner refuses to agree to this stipulation, then the Academy keeps the statuette.
BrPyy TIL when fallout from Chernobyl drifted northwards to Sweden, the mosses and lichens that reindeer survive on during winter months was contaminated with radiation. 73,000 reindeer were killed by the Swedish government, with no compensation given to the local Sámi peoples.
6Oa7 TIL of Lafayette, a Frenchman from the revolutionary war who later toasted “to the perpetual union of the united states. it has always served us in times of storm. one day it will save the world”. American troops sent to France in world war 1 visited the grave and said “Lafayette, we are here”