› added 9 years ago

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TIL that an autistic artist drew the entire New York skyline from memory after a 20 minute helicopter ride.

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d8OV9 TIL that a "Mary Sue" character - usually a writer self inserting themselves into a story where they can do nothing wrong - is named after a Star Trek fanfic where a 15 year old Lieutenant Mary Sue ran the ship, won the Nobel Prize, and her birthday was a national holiday each year.
7rm4b TIL Ice cream originated in Ancient China
wLx0Y TIL that while the Romans used concrete extensively in building their structures, the recipe was lost after the Fall of the Roman Empire, partially contributing to the Dark Ages. It wasn't reinvented until the late 19th century.
Lko40 TIL that the height limit on Washington, DC buildings has been in place since 1910 and has nothing to do with the height of the Washington Monument or the Capital Dome. Instead, height limits are based on the width of each street.
0dN8L TIL: A Virginia Beach woman produced $31.8 million in counterfeit coupons. She was sentenced to 12 years in prison “perpetrating a counterfeit coupon fraud scheme”. Her husband was sentenced to 7 years in prison because he was aware of and profited from the scheme.