› added 4 years ago

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TIL that, although the Soho district in NYC was named hundreds of years after the Soho district in London, only NYC's Soho is a functional abbreviation (South of Houston St.) while London's Soho was likely named for a hunting call.

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8epoP TIL in 1913 factory manager Leo Frank was convicted of the murder of Mary Phagan based largely on the testimony of janitor Jim Conley, who said Frank paid him to dispose of the body. Frank was lynched by an angry mob. Later investigation strongly suggests that Conley was the real killer all along.
W19N TIL that James Bond originally used a Beretta 418 until a fan of the novels (and small arms expert) wrote to Ian Flemming criticizing it as “a woman’s gun”. When Flemming had Bond switch to his iconic Walther PPK in Dr. No, he wrote the fan into the scene as MI6’s armorer
448w TIL in 1916 there was a lynching on a man with over 10,000 spectators, including children on lunch break. He was hung up over a fire and then had his body parts sold as souvenirs around town. Then a photographer sold his pictures of the lynching as postcards…
ADrD7 TIL about a jewish tradition where couples are wed in a cemetary to combat plagues
A8og TIL Before Chernobyl, the Soviets had another massive nuclear disaster which contaminated over 20,000 square km. The area was turned into a preserve to cover up the accident. The CIA knew of the accident, but also covered it up in order to protect the fledgling US nuclear industry from hysteria.