yVgAa TIL Steam locomotives could replenish its water supply while in motion using track pans, long troughs filled with water and a retractable water scooper that would be lowered. The speed of the forward motion forces the water up the scoop pipes into the tanks or tender.
m1gPM TIL that it is possible for additional roadways to create more traffic rather than alleviate it, known as Braess' Paradox
DQJKJ TIL that Dr. Sigmund Rascher, who conducted inhuman experiments on concentration camp inmates, was executed at the end of World War II...not for his war crimes, but on the direct orders of Heinrich Himmler, for "financial irregularities" and other actions which embarrassed Himmler.
vPgbD TIL of Stigler's law of eponymy: "no scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer". Stigler himself attributed the law's discovery to sociologist Robert K. Merton, ensuring that the law itself would be an example of itself.
J1WKm TIL the US has had four presidential yachts in its history
pYMNO TIL in 2003 hepatitis from green onions sickened 650 in the Pittsburgh area who ate at Chi-Chi's, a Tex-Mex restaurant chain. Four died and 485 were hospitalized. It led to Chi-Chi's going out of business nationwide in 2004.
GA4K5 TIL that at its real estate bubble peak Tokyo's total real estate value was priced more than the entire USA landmass
16eoD TIL that the San Luis Valley in southern CO is the largest alpine valley in the world - roughly the same size as New Hampshire
oRglA TIL A tautological place name is a place name where different parts of the name have the same meaning, for example, "Lake Chad" (Lake Lake), "Mississippi River" (Big River River), "Sahara Desert" (Deserts Desert)
dDJ97 TIL about Hitoshi Imamura, Japanese WWII General who thought his punishment was too light, so he built a replica of his prison and stayed there until his death
KYRKJ TIL that scientists can store movies, photos and even an entire operating system in strands of DNA
a81xN TIL that Colonel Sanders once studied Law and served as a Justice of the Peace in Little Rock, but his legal career ended abruptly after he got into a courtroom brawl with a client.