› added 1 year ago

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TIL of WWII vet Bert Shepard, the only man to ever pitch in Major League Baseball with an artificial leg

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jNbMX TIL in 1896, Bill Crush orchestrated the spectacle of smashing two trains into each other completely on purpose. Although no one was within 200 yards of the impact, the explosion from the steam engines killed two spectators and injured more. The event was considered a big PR and financial success.
Qpda TIL “Gringo” did not originate in Mexico to describe Americans, but in Spain in the 1700’s to describe foreigners whose speech was incomprehensible. Gringo likely came from the word “griego” meaning Greek, which in Spanish was used in the same way as English, “it’s Greek to me” (hablar in griego).
6ErVQ TIL at the start of the 2008 crash, the second Wall Street firm to reduce its position in mortgage-backed securities was Lehman Brothers Inc, which went bankrupt soon after. The first firm was Goldman Sachs, who moved early at the urging of two employees as dramatized in the 2011 film "Margin Call".
wok5P TIL "magic mushrooms" are legal in Colorado and Oregon
6Er9m TIL there is more sodium in a typical slice of bread than a serving of potato chips.