› added 6 years ago

258

TIL: That London Bridge /wasn't/ bought by a rich American who thought it was Tower Bridge. It was put up for sale by the City of London, because it was sinking and would have had to been demolished. It was bought by Robert McCulloch, an American billionaire, to help develop a new city in Arizona.

Read more bbc.co.uk

via reddit.com

j6ZMN TIL the Yamato Colony was a 1905 Japanese settlement in Florida created by businessmen and State authorities to spur agriculture and trade. By WWII the remaining Japanese were interned in camps and had their land taken away. Today only a museum and park remain.
0nmy TIL since the eradication of Smallpox the only known stocks of Smallpox still existing in the world are located at two laboratories.
xV9W0 TIL St. Bernard rescue dogs never carried brandy barrels. The trope comes from an 1820 painting done by a 17 year old.
l7lXr TIL that E = mc² is always applicable e.g: a compressed spring has more mass than a loose spring. The extra mass can be calculated by inserting the added potential energy into the above equation.
gyGD TIL of the Shepard tone, an auditory illusion that gives the sensation of a continuously rising pitch. It helped create the overwhelming suspense in the film “Dunkirk”