› added 12 years ago

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TIL Bill Gates wrote his high school’s class scheduling program. He modified it so that he was placed in classes with the “right” girls.

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epxbE TIL of Herxheim, a mass grave/ritual center dating back to ~5000 BC. It is estimated that >1000 individuals were cannibalized at this site as ritual sacrifices.
9MgG TIL in 1969, the U.S. under Nixon went into nuclear readiness alert and flew nuclear armed fighter jets along Soviet airspace for three days. This was part of Nixon’s Madman Theory, in which he tried to give off the image that he was unstable to make sure the Soviets would never provoke the U.S.
R7WN4 TIL from my Bolivian co-worker that Potosi (the largest city in the new world 1545) had more than 40,000 tons of silver shipped out of the town, making the Spanish Empire one of the richest the world had ever seen. He said it Bolivians claim it was enough silver to build an transatlantic bridge.
mxEyM TIL during WWI, the British Army had “Pals battalions”; letting men from the same community to serve in the war together. This practice was ended after the Somme offensive, as entire battalions were wiped out, meaning their communities back home were devastated.
8eP0K TIL Gangkhar Puensum is the tallest mountain in Bhutan and the tallest unclimbed mountain at 7,570 m (24,840 ft). Gankhar Puensum will likely remain the tallest unclimbed mountain as mountaineering above 6,000 m (20,000 ft) has been prohibited in Bhutan since 1994 to respect spiritual beliefs.