› added 7 years ago

174

TIL that in 2005, Houston was struck by Hurricane Rita, which resulted in 3.7m people evacuating the area. The evacuation caused a traffic jam that spanned 100 miles, lasted days, and killed dozens of people. Hurricane Rita then ended up changing course and only dealt Houston a glancing blow.

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OoE67 TIL that during WWI influenza sickened 26% of the US Army—more than one million men—and killed almost 30,000 before they even got to France.
m1l8M TIL of Alessandro Moreschi, the only castrato singer to make a solo recording (in 1902 - Samples are on the Wiki-Page)
kJrEB TIL saturation divers have to live weeks in a pressurized environment
m18Xy TIL tiny Neolithic baby spoons indicate that new baby gruels were an important innovation in prehistoric baby-care, freeing up women to have more babies & leading to unprecedented population growth
0wLRN TIL WB thought Inception would be a box-office flop, but financed it anyway as they believed it would do well in award shows. Inception went on to be a box-office hit and was infamously snubbed from winning any major categories in the Oscars.