› added 5 years ago

970

TIL "Blah Blah Blah" saying came from Ancient Greece. The term was "bar bar bar". Taken from the same root as barbarian, it implied the words beings spoken were "meaningless noises",

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OL56 TIL That bearing a child is the 6th leading cause of death amongst women 20-34 in the United States. It is actually safer to be on birth control for a prolonged period of time than to be pregnant.
vKxr TIL that in 1869, Chinese and Irish labourers working on the Central Pacific Railway managed to lay down 10 miles of tracks in just one day, something that has never been matched since.
1ayG7 The SR-71 Blackbird holds the record for flying from New York City to London. The record, 1 hour 54 minutes and 56.4 seconds (mach 2.68), was set on 1 September 1974 and is still the record for this transatlantic flight.
OPP6 TIL that spider’s brains are actually so large they overflow into their legs
xE55 TIL an Indian flight attendant hid the passports of American passengers on board a hijacked flight to save them from the hijackers. She died while shielding three children from a hail of bullets.