› added 8 years ago

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TIL In 1833, Britain used 40% of its national budget to buy freedom for all slaves in the Empire.

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woxWP TIL The first New Year’s Eve ball was dropped in Times Square in 1907. In response to a ban on fireworks implemented that year, an electrician built the ball as an alternative way to celebrate New Year’s Eve. He constructed a wood and iron ball that weighed 700 pounds and featured 100 light bulbs.
E15B0 TIL between 1981 and 1986 Kia had a period in which they didn't make any passenger cars, because government-enforced industry centralisation forced them to move out of that sector and focus on light trucks.
ZOe4 TIL when stepped on a landmine it never makes a soft “click” and explode after the pressure is lifted like in the movies. It explodes the moment you step on it.
0d7py TIL about the Vipeholm experiments, a series of human experiments where patients of Vipeholm Hospital for the intellectually disabled in Lund, Sweden, were fed large amounts of sweets, including "extra sticky toffee" to provoke dental caries.
LkE7p TIL of James Hard, a US Civil War veteran who died at 111 years old, living long enough to see both WW1 and WW2. We went from rows of musket fire to nuclear arms within his lifetime.