› added 7 years ago

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TIL when his heir died childless, the estate of British scientist James Smithson passed to the U.S. government. American diplomat Richard Rush was sent to England to collect the money, and returned with today’s equivalent of $11M in gold coins, which was used to found the Smithsonian Institution.

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KMYB TIL With only one exception, every public shooting since 1950 in the U.S. in which more than three people have been killed has taken place where citizens are not allowed to carry guns.
wLjx1 TIL Fruit flies drink alcohol when they are sexually frustrated.
nWNn7 TIL: Sam Warner Co-founder of Warner bros died of several tooth abscesses, After four surgeries to remove the infection, Warner slipped into a coma. He died of pneumonia caused by sinusitis, osteomyelitis and epidural and subdural abscess spread to his brain from his untreated cavities.
rRl4o TIL in 2007, a study was done to see if women were more talkative than men. 396 individuals were strapped with voice recorders for several days. Both men and women were found to speak an average of 16,000 words per day.
4agR TIL a Louisville man was acquitted of killing his girlfriend. 6 mos later, rolls of film were found in his former home with photos of him torturing and murdering her. Double jeopardy prevented a retrial, but he was charged with perjury for testifying that he didn’t do it