› added 12 years ago

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TIL cities with the largest populations were assigned area codes by how fast they could be dialed on a rotary phone.

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AD4v4 TIL about the Carrington Event which destroyed huge parts of the world's electrical system at the time.
8ebDb TIL James Cameron pitched the sequel to Ridley Scott's "Alien" by walking straight to a whiteboard, writing "Alien" on it, adding an "s" to it to write "Aliens," and then added two vertical lines to the "s" to transform it into "Alien$."
8eBDL TIL that all the local anaesthetic drug names end in “-caine” because cocaine was one of the first local anaesthetics.
0wKLA TIL about avant-garde composer John Cage whose most famous work is 4'33". For four minutes and 33 seconds, the musicians do nothing, allowing the audience to hear the environmentals of the performance hall.
WPj8 TIL prisoners in the female-only concentration camp Ravensbruck purposefully sewed socks with thin heels and toes so German soldier’s feet would get sore.