› added 12 years ago

205

TIL That the birthplace of solar energy was in Olney, Illinois in 1902. Mysteriously, it’s the same year the white squirrels appeared there.

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ErpP TIL if you’re born on an international flight, your place of birth is listed as ‘born at sea’ on your passport.
xVbn1 TIL about Konstantin Tsiolkovsky, the Russian father of rocketry. He was a self-educated man, but he developed insights into space travel and rocket science that are still in use over a hundred years later, earning him a place in history as one of the pioneers of astronautics.
bOj TIL One in Five Adults Admit to Peeing in the Pool, and that (along with cosmetics and sweat) is what causes people’s eyes to be red, not the chlorine itself
epwd5 TIL there are bug farms growing bugs to feed pets and other animals
e0rBg TIL that U.S. area codes were influenced by the rotary dial, where smaller numbers are dialed faster than longer ones. The first digit could not be one or zero, but the second had to be one or zero. Therefore, the most quickly dialed code was 212; the slowest was 909. This system existed until 1995.