› added 8 months ago

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TIL: before the release of the 1989 film “Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade”, the famous Al-Khazneh in Jordan was visited by only a few thousand tourists a year. Now, the site is filled with almost a million tourists annually, and has several shops around it relating to Indiana Jones.

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R7LE8 TIL: In 1970 pet parrots escaped or were released in Chicago and are thriving in Hyde Park. Thousands were imported from South America in the 50 and 60's.
vPwn8 TIL that in 2019 the NHS was using 10% of the world's pagers.
6p8w TIL chunks of whale puke sell for as much as $150,000. After aging, the chunks become known as ambergris, developing a sweet musky smell. The material is highly sought after by high-end perfume manufacturers.
Lk850 TIL in 1991 two English pranksters took credit for many of Britain's crop circles, after an investigator declared one example "impossible for human beings to make". After some refused to believe them, Bower and Chorley started adding straight lines and squares to show they weren't natural.
yVJ0w TIL: Wife selling was a practice in England for almost 2 centuries with last incident being in 1913 where one was sold to a coworker for £1. It ended unhappy marriages as divorces were expensive. Eventually there were public auctions that the wife had to agree to. You can even buy back your wife.