› added 10 years ago

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TIL that an estimated 2 million German women were raped during the later part of WWII. The majority of the rapes took place in the Soviet occupation zone. This is considered by some to be the “greatest phenomenon of mass rape in history”.

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e0KE TIL the security director for Morgan Stanley in the WTC predicted airliners crashing into the towers, drew up a detailed plan accordingly, and used it to swiftly evacuate all but 13 of 2700 Morgan Stanley employees and hundreds more. He died when the buildings collapsed.
l7vE5 TIL windshield wipers were originally invented by Mary Anderson in 1903. They were originally intended to be used for trolley cars, but she could not get any companies to use them. Cadillac began using the invention on cars in 1922 but she did not profit from the invention as the patent had expired.
EgExp TIL prolonged use of beta 2 agonists in case of bronchial asthma can lead to down regulation of beta receptors.
o6E7 TIL most of present-day Boston actually sits on man-made landfill supported by underground wooden pilings
WkVM9 TIL that Roald Dahl‘s daughter Olivia died of measles and, feeling guilty about not having been able to do anything for her, he became a staunch proponent of immunisation