› added 10 years ago

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TIL the Indus Valley Civilizaton’s major cities had flushing toilets in almost every home by 2600 BC

0wRGN TIL Taylor Swift was born into wealth. Her father is “a descendant of three generations of bank presidents” and worked for Merrill Lynch. At the age of 14 her family moved to Nashville where her father purchased a stake in Big Machine, the label to which Swift first signed.
4k8m5 TIL that Poppy flowers became associated with the military after a Canadian poet was inspired by a field of poppies near a mass grave in Belgium folliwing World War 1. The poppies grew there after the bombing and trench warfare churned up the soil, exposing dormant poppy seeds to the sunlight.
bVW9 TIL scientists have found evidence of a flood around 1920 B.C in China that corresponds to the time of Emperor Yu, the legendary first Chinese emperor, who was renowned for his accomplishments in clearing up floodwaters
XEOxr According to the independent research group Shrink That Footprint, apartments in Hong Kong are on average the smallest in the world (484 sq ft). The average one-bed flat size in Manhattan, New York, is 716 sq ft, in London, it is 550 sq ft. And soon, by converting drainpipes into homes, flats in Hong Kong are set to shrink even more.
wLZp8 TIL that Tenzing Norgay, one of the first two men who reached Mount Everest, didn't know when his exact birthday was. After his ascent of Everest on 29 May 1953, he decided to celebrate his birthday on that day thereafter.