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TIL The loudest known noise was created by a volcano which created sound waves that altered air pressure on earth for 5 days and ruptured the ear drums of sailors 40 miles away from the blast.

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eyOE TIL At the end of cleaning up Chernobyl, three men were forced to travel to the top of reactor 3’s chimney to hang a red flag. Due to high radiation levels, the entire operation had to be timed to last no more than 9 minutes. Their reward was a bottle of pepsi (a luxury at the time) and a day off
rN9Re TIL that sticking out one’s tongue is a sign of respect or agreement and was often used as a greeting in traditional Tibetan culture. Apparently, a cruel ninth-century Tibetan king had a black tongue, so people stick out their tongues to show that they are not like him (and aren’t his reincarnation)
LkPm0 TIL that in the 1940s, US funded doctors went to Guatemala to test STD treatments by deliberately infecting 1,308 locals between the ages of 10 and 72 with gonorrhea, syphilis, and chancroid, all without their informed consent. The US doctors gave only 52% of subjects any treatment. 83 died.
WkxwX TIL red and yellow cards in FIFA were introduced after a referee was stopped at a traffic light and thought "Yellow, take it easy; red: stop, you're off". They also helped to address the communication issues due to the various languages involved.
OoQg7 TIL About Horace De Vere Cole, an eccentric prankster who once gave out tickets to a theatrical performance to bald people so that when the light shone on their heads it would spell out "bollocks"