› added 10 years ago

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TIL that the Boston Marathon (2013), Virginia Tech Shootings (2007), Columbine Shootings (1999), Oklahoma City bombing (1995), and the Branch Davidian siege (1993) have all occurred in the third week of April.

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e0mjk TIL that in November 2000, Japan passed their first anti-stalking law after a 21 year old student was murdered by her stalker the previous year. She had been turned away multiple times by the police who denied and falsely portrayed her as a promiscuous flirt on the media.
7vMX TIL ‘Vexations’ an 18hr long piece of music. After a public performance in New York in 1963 only 6 people remained to the end, one stood up and shouted “Encore!”
wMw6 TIL photographer Mathew Brady captured over 7000 photos of the US Civil War (including the portrait of Lincoln that would be used for the $5 bill), which have become the most important visual documentation of the period. He died in debt after the US gov’t did not buy his master-copies after the war.
R7XBw TIL that medical examiners and coroners determine the cause of death. Medical examiners are medically trained but coroners aren't required to be medically trained. In many states, you only have to be of legal age and have no felony convictions to be elected coroner.
p8W4Z TIL a gentleman in the 1940s observed that the burr seeds that stuck to his clothes and his dog’s fur had a tiny hook structure. On closer inspection, he discovered the hooks were more reliable than a zipper. He developed a company popularly known today as Velcro.