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3314

TIL a steer is a bull that has has been castrated and an ox is a mature steer.

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8Wyb TIL There is a species of firefly in the U.S.’s Great Smokey Mountains that synchronize their flashing patterns so that they all light up at the same time.
5YMOP TIL of Frank Portusach, who, when American forces captured Guam from Spain during the Spanish American War, was appointed governor of Guam with the only qualification being he was an American Citizen
BgYxk TIL that a Swedish orphan known as the Gävle Boy led children in false accusations that ignited a witch panic in Stockholm. When he confessed he had lied other witch trials across Sweden collapsed, and he was hanged for perjury at just 13 years old.
xVj70 TIL that on the Mississippi River in the 1850s, the word "two" was often pronounced "twain." When leadsmen measured a depth of two fathoms, they shouted "mark twain!" The American writer Mark Twain, a former river pilot from Missouri, got his pen name from this phrase.
KO5ME TIL that the treadmill was first introduced as a Prison Rehabilitation Device, meant to cause the incarcerated to suffer and learn from their sweat. When Oscar Wilde was sentenced to 2 years in prison in 1895, he was forced to use a treadmill as part of his punishment.