› added 9 years ago

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TIL that prior to the income tax being enacted in 1913, the U.S. government got up to 40% of its revenue from alcohol taxes. Without the income tax in place, the Prohibition Amendment would likely not have been proposed by the Senate in 1917.

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4XA1N TIL that George Washington was born on February 11th, but when his birthday first became a holiday it was celebrated on February 22nd. This is because when Washington was born, British colonies were still using the Julian calendar, which was 11 days behind the Gregorian.
R5N9j TIL the first recorded use of suicide bombs in warfare was actually during the 1937 Battle of Shanghai and 1938 Battle of Taierzhuang with three instances of Chinese Nationalist soldiers destroying invading Japanese tanks and infantry platoons by strapping explosive grenade belts to themselves
nX9d TIL xhamster.com is the most popular porn site and has an Alexa traffic rank above Craigslist and IMDB
OlR4 TIL that in Classical Athens, the citizens could vote each year to banish any person who was growing too powerful, as a threat to democracy. This process was called Ostracism.
b9x6a TIL that Diamonds do not last forever, as the amount that people spend on weddings and engagement rings is inversely associated with how long they stay married. Spending between $2,000-$4,000 is associated with (an increase in the hazard of divorce) as compared with spending between $500- $2,000