M7G4m TIL that rural Americans used barbed wire to connect their telephones to switchboards since there were no telephone lines.
j6yXn TIL The fella who invented the two-liter bottle was also CEO of Apple!
0d1my TIL, scholars in southwest India discovered one of the founding principles of modern mathematics hundreds of years before Newton
gr5wL TIL that the Oʻahu ʻakialoa bird - a species of Hawaiian honey creeper- went extinct because of a strain of bird flu that was passed by mosquitoes.
LQAxr TIL of the Alcohol Harm Paradox: Poor people who report lower rates of drinking suffer more alcohol-related illnesses than rich people who report higher rates of drinking.
b6y4E TIL that Australia actually exports sand to Saudi Arabia. This is because maritime or beach sand is coarser than desert sand. Coarse sand j's needed in construction which effectively makes desert sand completely useless.
QN9Rd TIL that Spam is seen as a luxury food in South Korea due to smuggling during Korean War from U.S. army base
ANGKw TIL: The Brony Jar Incident was done by a NON-Brony as a Joke. Bronies never did it
m1jPP TIL John Patrick Hannan escaped from prison in 1955 by scaling the walls with knotted sheets just 30 days into a 21-month sentence for car theft and assaulting two officers. As of 2023, he had proceeded to evade capture and holds the world record for longest escape from custody.
yV7AJ TIL that “The Girl from Ipanema” is the second most recorded song ever.
DQvKv TIL: In pre revolutionary France, the tax was called the "taille", which was originally a way for peasants to pay to be exempt from the army. However, it was expanded afterwards. Nobles, clergy, and people living in Paris and Lyon were excluded.
vP5b4 TIL, in his suicide note, mass shooter Charles Whitman requested his body be autopsied because he felt something was wrong with him. The autopsy discovered that Whitman had a pecan-sized tumor pressing against his amygdala, a brain structure that regulates fear and aggression.