› added 9 years ago

207

TIL If you earn more than US$21,000 a year, you are part of the richest 4% of the planet.

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LkyoV TIL that Joshua Norton, most famous for proclaiming himself "Emperor of the United States", once successfully stopped a race riot by standing between the rioters and Chinese labourers and repeatedly reciting the Lord's Prayer until they dispersed
p8nBA TIL a 7.1 magnitude earthquake that hit Mexico damaged a 13th century Aztec Pyramid but in the process revealed an even older temple inside.
DQLZr TIL During the WW2 Battle Of The Atlantic, the British Merchant Navy had a higher casualty rate in proportion to the armed forces, and their wages were halted as soon as their vessel was hit by a torpedo.
l7dK TIL That, to prove that stomach ulcers were caused by bacteria and not stress, a scientist drank a beaker of the bacterium. He both developed stomach ulcers and won the Nobel Prize in Medicine.
9YorM TIL that hospitals can and do prescribe alcohol to patients in order to prevent delirium tremens and alcoholic withdrawal