› added 4 years ago

80

TIL in 1919, the U.S. Army organized a convoy of 81 vehicles from Washington, DC to San Francisco, CA. The trip took 56 travel days, broke 9 vehicles, had 21 casualties and convinced observer Dwight Eisenhower to champion the Interstate Highway System, which he signed into law 37 years later.

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jNa5M TIL of Caspar, a cat who in 2006 disappeared from his home. It was not until 2009 that his owner found out he was a regular bus commuter. Drivers told her he would politely queue with other passengers at the bus stop, and when a bus came that he liked, he got on and found his favourite seat.
J5vQ TIL that “competitive endurance tickling” is a thing, and that it apparently has a seedy criminal underbelly filled with personal attacks, legal threats, and manipulation
kJdaE TIL 2100, 2200 and 2300 will NOT be a leap years, due to the fact that if a year is divisible by 100, but not 400, the year is skipped as a leap year, to counteract that a year is not actually 365.25 days long, but about 365.2422 instead, meaning the rule makes up for 3 days every 400 years.
9YORG TIL of Bartholomäus Traubeck, an artist and engineer who discovered how to make music from tree rings. “A record player that plays slices of wood, [in which] year ring data is translated into music." The trees year rings are analyzed and this data is used to generate piano music.
goRL TIL It costs $44,563 to incarcerate a prisoner for a year in California—nearly the same price as a year at Harvard University with room and board