› added 8 years ago

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TIL that LEGO also manufactured “non-brick” wooden toys under BILOfix brand. Their wooden toy factory was burnt down twice: first in the 1940s and second in 1960 when the lightning struck it. After this, the team decided to focus on the production of plastic construction sets instead.

0d1Mj TIL ostriches, the fastest and largest extant bipedal terrestrial animal, can run for 30 minutes at 50 km/h (31.1 mph) and can also move at a speed of 70 km/h (43.5 mph) for short sprints. Interestingly, unlike other birds, ostriches have only two toes on each foot.
w4M6 TIL that J. R. R. Tolkien might have gotten the idea for a ring that makes its wearer invisible from an ancient, Greek story told by one of Plato’s students about a shepherd discovering such a ring on a cadaver in a cave, and then using it to kill his king
5Zrr TIL of the one-electron universe postulate, proposed by theoretical physicist John Wheeler. Its hypothesis is that there is only one electron in existence that is constantly moving throughout time
wLXXo TIL when the US Airspace was closed during the 9/11 attacks, passenger planes were forced to land in Gander, Newfoundland. The community hosted 7,000 people until it was safe for them to re-enter America. The town has been awarded a piece of steel from the buildings to commemorate their efforts.
9616 TIL that John Rockefeller is regarded as the richest American ever and his fortune adjusted to todays dollars would amount to $663.4 billion.