› added 6 years ago

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Today I learned the St. Francis dam disaster was one of the most catastrophic civil engineering failures in American history.

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X0gdD TIL of Cri du chat syndrome which is a rare genetic disorder that affects 1 in 50,000 children; its name comes from the French for "cry of the cat" as the cries of affected infants are similar to that of a meowing kitten due to problems with the larynx and nervous system
5Gkr TIL a boat named the “Eastland” sank three years after the Titanic because of new laws which required more life boats. The boat became too top heavy and sank, killing over 800 people.
VMN1p TIL, premature babies in incubators were a sideshow along the boardwalk at Coney Island in the late 19th and early 20th century. Incubators wouldn't be widely used in hospitals for several more decades.
loYPA TIL a mother black lace-weaver spider will drum on her web to call her babies to come and eat her alive.
Z8agD TIL that in 2016, after 168 years of searches the infamous lost ship "Terror" was ultimately found in Terror Bay, which was named after the ship in 1910 - half a century after its disappearance. For a long time, Canada refused to look for a ship there despite numerous statements by the local tribes