› added 4 years ago

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TIL Hard pretzels were invented in the late 1600s, when a snoozing apprentice in a Pennsylvania bakery accidentally overbaked his pretzels, creating crunchy, seemingly inedible, knots. His job was spared when the master baker, attempting admonishment, took an angry bite out of one--and loved it.

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via reddit.com

K0B TIL: One leopard killed 410 people and was hunted down by the same man that killed the tiger with 436 victims. They were active in the same region at the same time.
vAPj TIL that when Leopold Trouvelot was attempting to breed a better silkworm using Gypsy moths, several of the moths escaped from his home, and within ten years, the insect had denuded the vegetation in the neighborhood, and that’s how the Gypsy moth infestation across North-Eastern America began.
6v9Z TIL that a Russian serial killer who is also an outstanding chess player has said his aim was to kill 64 people, the number of squares on a chessboard. He later recanted this statement, saying that he would have continued killing indefinitely if he had not been stopped.
awZNN TIL the Golden Age of Piracy, between 1650s & 1730s happened because of: more valuable cargo being shipped over vast ocean areas; reduced European navies; & corrupt officials in overseas colonies.
5YoDr TIL: The St. Louis Gateway Arch Has a Tram to the Top and an Observation Deck