› added 5 years ago

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TIL that ~2500 years before Ancient Rome, the Indus Valley Civilization had public baths, personal toilets, and a widespread system of brick and terracotta drainage ducts and the first instances of plumbing and in the ancient world.

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9Y7O6 TIL European starlings (Sturnus vulgaris), native to Europe, were first introduced by Shakespeare enthusiasts in 1890 in Central Park, NY with the release of about 100 birds, and they are now one of the most abundant and destructive birds in North America with a population of roughly 200 million.
Vm1m TIL that the earliest piece of great literature, The Epic of Gilgamesh, includes a story in which Gilgamesh is told to build a ship to save the animals of the world from a “great flood”. Nearly 2,000 years later, a similar tale with different names appeared in the Bible’s book of Genesis.
oBxJK TIL that while Martin Luther King Jr. Day was created in 1983, states were slow to accept the holiday. All 50 states didn't celebrate the holiday until 2000.
MeP6b TIL on Kinmen (a small group of islands off the coast of mainland China controlled by Taiwan) knives are made from spent artillery shells. "Kinmen knives" were originally made from Allied artillery during WWII; blacksmiths now use shells fired from mainland China during the 1950s-1970s.
a844y TIL from 1907 to 1934, Newfoundland was an independent dominion