› added 10 years ago

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TIL the Catholic Church considers superstition to be a sin.

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pYAP8 TIL the first Scram button on a nuclear reactor had its origins in 1942 where an actual control rod tied to a rope with a man with an axe stood next to it; cutting the rope would mean the rods would fall by gravity into the reactor core, shutting the reactor down.
7rerM TIL the word "cuckold" derives from the cuckoo bird, alluding to its habit of laying its eggs in other birds' nests.
8eJMZ TIL that before becoming famous as a General in the Union Army, William T. Sherman was the first superintendent of Louisiana State Seminary, which went on to become Louisiana State University.
aWgL TIL before establishing KFC, Colonel Sanders worked at a gas station and got into a gunfight with a rival gas station manager.
mxKgY TIL in 1964 a super cyclone destroyed a town called Dhanushkodi, making it into a ghost town. The storm overturned a train entering it's railway station killing over 200 passengers. 4 radio operators braved the storm to continue broadcasting, and survived by clinging on to a bridge for 12 hours.