› added 9 years ago

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TIL Democrats used to be “red” (the color associated with socialism) and Republicans used to be “blue” (the color associated with the Union Army). It changed in the 1984 election because “Reagan”, “Republican” and “Red” all start with “Re”.

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VBOYm TIL between 1999 and 2014 the British Post Office, due to an accounting software glitch, criminally prosecuted 736 people who ran post office branches for theft and false accounting. With many left bankrupt or in prison, despite the Post Office becoming aware of a fault in the system in 2010.
mkkO TIL the Holocaust in Belarus killed up to 40% of its population. 100,000 Jews lived in the Minsk ghetto, with 1.5 meters of allotted space each and none for children. The Nazis planned to kill 75% of Belorussians - those with blonde hair/blue eyes would be allowed to live as slaves for Germans.
md9v TIL of ‘Tetris Effect’, where a person devoting a large amount of time to a particular pattern-based activity(which in this case is Tetris) will start unconsciously thinking and dreaming about it
ANmKa TIL that in the 1790s, France had a network of signalling towers that could send messages by writing symbols using giant mechanical arms on towers. They could send complex messages across the entire country in ~1 hour. These were precursors to electric telegraphs.
VQj4 TIL that the brainwaves of Dr Carl Sagan’s wife, Ann Druyan, are included in the Voyager 1 & 2 probes, making them the only human thoughts to ever leave the solar system