› added 11 years ago

76

TIL that Penn Station was actually once an elegant, beautiful building that was torn down in the 1960s, which caused such outrage that it led to the historical preservation of many of New York’s buildings today.

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x77 TIL bees have hair on their eyes
1aXwD TIL it took 200,000 years for humanity to reach 1 billion people, but only 200 years to reach 7 billion.
JYKb8 TIL The influenza epidemic of 1918 killed an estimated 675,000 Americans (far more than the 53,402 who died in combat in World War I). The impact was so profound as to depress average life expectancy in the U.S. by >10 years & may have played a significant role in ending the World War 1 conflict.
MxKA TIL that the students of the University of Colorado at Boulder named their cafeteria grill after Alferd G. Packer–a convicted cannibal. Their slogan: “Have a friend for lunch!”
kOYGe TIL the city of London still pays rent to the Queen on land it leased in 1211. Nobody even knows where the land is located anymore. But over the past centuries, the city has paid the same flat rate: a knife, an axe, six oversized horseshoes, and 61 nails.