› added 12 years ago

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TIL: The first battle of the Civil War took place on Wilmer McLean’s farm. He moved to get away from the violence, but 4 years later Lee would surrender to Grant in his new house. His quote: “The war began in my front yard and ended in my front parlor.”

XEBk TIL that in the state of Indiana, you can legally shoot and kill a police office in certain situations.
grEpy TIL that since 2016, Shanghai elderly residents may sue their children or other family members if they don't regularly visit, and can get them blacklisted in the social credit system if they don't comply
MeN5m TIL the word 'robot' was invented by Czech anti-fascist writers. 'Robota' means 'forced labour', & was coined by Josef Čapek. His brother Karel's 1920 sci-fi play 'R.U.R.' tells of android workers rising up against human masters. Josef was murdered in the Bergen-Belsen concentration camp in 1945.
GYQl5 TIL that John Young smuggled an illegal corned beef sandwich on board the Gemini 3 spacecraft in 1965. For this delicious stunt, he was given the first reprimand in NASA space mission history and his snack remains the only contraband sandwich to ever make it into space.
9BjM TIL that in 1994 a 17 yr old boy used radioactive material from homemade items like clocks to build himself a nuclear reactor. Although it never came anywhere near reaching critical mass, it ended up emitting dangerous levels of radiation, likely over 1,000 times normal background radiation.