› added 4 years ago

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TIL: Portland Oregon's first bicycling boom ended starting in 1900 when a group of prostitutes began to ride them and solicit customers on their rides about town. Soon women riding bikes were assumed to be prostitutes and other women stopped riding.

e5ND TIL lead singer of Alice in Chains Layne Staley was found laying dead next to several spray paint cans with a fully loaded syringe in his right hand and one still attached to his leg. His height was 6 feet but he only weighed 86 pounds upon finding him.
KY6KR TIL Victory gardens, also called war gardens or food gardens for defense, were vegetable, fruit, and herb gardens planted at private residences and public parks in the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and Germany during World War I and World War II.
WpB TIL the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs cast shadows behind objects because of the massive heat/light it cast out (WARNING: graphic pictures)
nemwP TIL of Virginia Hall, one of the most highly decorated spies in American history. Her small resistance team is credited with destroying four bridges, derailing dozens of freight trains, killing 150 German soldiers, and capturing another 300 enemy troops. She did all of this with a wooden leg.
b9KZZ TIL about Makuragaeshi which are Japanese spirits that visit people at night to flip their pillows over. They're mentioned in stories from the Edo period to modern times. In ancient Japan, they believed the soul left the body during dreams and that it couldn't return if the pillow was flipped.