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TIL that in 1947, a team of engineers working on the Harvard Mark II computer discovered that the system had crashed due to an actual moth stuck in a relay, and they taped the insect into their logbook, jokingly calling it the “first computer bug”—a term that has been used ever since.

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via reddit.com

8erBG TIL that Rosa chinensis, native to Southwest China, introduced the trait of repeat blooming to modern garden roses, revolutionizing rose cultivation in Europe.
E11d0 TIL that to get Tyrian Purple, you had to boil thousands of snails just to get a few grams of pure dye of it.
LkmGP TIL: Crows are about as smart as a 7 year old. They make tools, recognize human faces, know the route your garbage truck takes, understand analogies, hold grudges and pass those grudges down to future generations.
LknMV TIL that in 1977, the FBI started to build a tunnel under the Soviet Embassy in Washington D.C to eavesdrop on the Soviets; the construction took years, was riddled with complications, and worse yet - the Soviets knew about the tunnel because of a tip-off
5YNEn TIL that until 2017, the toilets on UK trains flushed onto the tracks below.