› added 9 years ago

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TIL: At 0.21% of the total population, the United States has the lowest percentage of its population living in its capital city in the world

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nevGY TIL the FBI caught one of the 1993 World Trade Center bombers after he returned to the Ryder from which he rented the truck used to carry the bomb, wanting the $400 deposit back because his truck was "stolen".
R5Q9a TIL the ancient Irish had their own alphabet similar to Viking runes, with 20 letters each named after a tree. Scholars still debate whether it was invented to communicate covertly with Roman Britain right next door
ADyJx TIL that when King Leopold II of Belgium personally acquired the "Congo Free State" in 1885, it was 76 times the size of Belgium. He claimed the land at the 1884-1885 Berlin conference promising to improve the lives of the locals but ended up enslaving them to gather ivory and natural rubber.
rNEZW TIL the mouthwash Listerine was originally a surgical antiseptic and was named for surgeon, scientist, and pioneer of antiseptic surgery, Joseph Lister
GneG TIL April 11, 1954 was the most boring day in history.