› added 8 years ago

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TIL In 1872 A Luddite was badly wounded and locked up. They interrogated him to find the co-conspirators. As his health worsened he called over the interrogator and said “Can you keep a secret?” “Yes!” the interrogator cried. “So can I” said the Luddite and promptly died.

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GMZE TIL: The “tradition” of spending several months salary on an engagement ring was a marketing campaign created by De Beers in the 1930’s. Before WWII, only 10% of engagement rings contained diamonds. By the end of the 20th Century, 80% did.
OG9Oa TIL the concorde used fuel pumps and multiple fuel tanks to move its fuel around mid-flight to trim its center-of-mass to help maintain stability as it passed supersonic speeds.
Mewya TIL that, during the so-called "Dark Ages" of Europe, the Muslim World was having an "Enlightened," or "Golden" Age, in part, because the Muslims adopted "modern" numbers from the Hindus as it was "easier" to do mathematics while the rest of Europe kept Roman Numerals (linked playlist with video).
nW6lY TIL that the International Date Line was only discovered after Ferdinand Magellan circumnavigated the world and discovered he "lost" a day compared to those who stayed in Spain.
4X8vg TIL a small town in the Appalachian Mountains, an area usually portrayed as being poor and ignorant in media, elected an all-female town council in 1948 that organized the town’s garbage disposal system and fire department, as well as many other positive changes