› added 7 years ago

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TIL Benjamin Franklin had an abusive older brother who forced him to sign an indenture until he was 21 in Boston. His brother was abusive partly because Benjamin showed talent. At age 17, he ran away penniless to Philadelphia, gained connections and jump-started his political career.

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XEbQE TIL President Park Chung Hee was responsible in large part for South Korea’s “economic miracle”; the programs he initiated gave his country one of the fastest-growing economies in the world during his 18 year rule
lAra TIL that the US allows US chickens to be shipped to China for processing and then shipped back to the US without notifying consumers the chicken came from China.
OLML TIL in 1992 thousands of plastic yellow ducks broke free from a cargo ship on the Pacific. They floated halfway around the world for years and were used to study ocean currents.
X07kj TIL the Black Death contributed greatly to the rise of the British Pub and pub culture. Thanks to the plague, scarcity of labor greatly improved the standard of living for peasants, who in turn spent their extra money on beer.
EgVv0 TIL that in 1856, an American stole a slice of watermelon in Panama City which resulted in a riot that killed 17 people and left at least 63 others wounded.