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TIL the computer was not invented in the 1940’s. In the 1830’s Charles Babbage designed a mechanical, steam powered beast with a CPU, RAM, even a printer, that could do most of the things early electronic computers could. It was never built.

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4kD6b TIL in 1660 Prince Rupert brought bulbous shaped glass "drops" to King Charles II. These were the first instance of a predecessor to tempered glass. They could withstand a blow from a hammer on the bulbous end without breaking, while exhibiting explosive disintegration if the tail was damage.
GnyN TIL MIT Predicts That World Economy Will Collapse By 2030
nKd9 TIL Half Price Books was founded by two men who pooled 2,000 of their own books as the store’s first merchandise.
X6Rr TIL that the developers of Star Wars: The Force Unleashed hoped that George Lucas would give Vader’s apprentice a Darth moniker. Lucas agreed and offered up two Darth titles to choose from; ‘Darth Icky’ and ‘Darth Insanius.’ People waited for George to say ‘just kidding,’ but it never came.
694MY TIL after Tony Hawk complained about how bad the prototype skateboard emoji looked, he was invited to help redesign it