› added 9 years ago

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TIL on May 19, 1713, two hundred citizens rioted on the Boston Common due to a food shortage in the city. They later attacked the ships and warehouses of wealthy merchant Andrew Belcher, who was exporting grain to the Caribbean for higher profits. The lieutenant governor was shot during the riot.

yQYgJ TIL that ignorance breeding overconfidence is a scientifically observed phenomenon called the “Dunning–Kruger effect“
yDoM TIL human fingers can discriminate between surfaces patterned with ridges as small as 13 nanometers in amplitude & non-patterned surfaces. This means that if your finger was the size of the Earth, you could feel the difference between houses from cars
6EBWw TIL Hershey's once developed a chocolate bar for the US Army that would remain solid up to 49C (120F) and was poison gas proof but was also very bitter to prevent soldiers from eating it unless in an emergency. Troops called it "Hitler's Secret Weapon" because of what it would do to their bowels.
4kp6g TIL that Twinsburg, Ohio was founded by a set of twins in 1818. Aaron and Moses Wilcox from Killingworth, CT purchased 4,000 acres of land and began selling small parcels at low prices to attract other sellers. Every year - since 1976 - Twinsburg has held the world’s largest festival for twins.
xrnb TIL that many Jehova’s Witnesses consider Smurfs to be demons and that toys and pictures of Smurfs will come alive to harass families and bite their children at night.