› added 2 months ago

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TIL 200 people were poisoned in Bradford, England after a batch of sweets from a confectionery shop was contaminated with arsenic. This was because the confectioner's supplier accidentally sent him arsenic trioxide when he had ordered powdered plaster, and the confectioner mixed it into the sweets.

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via reddit.com

rNDmw TIL that at the time of Pope Sisinnius' election, he was so weakened by gout that he was unable to feed himself with his hands. His papacy lasted just 20 days, from January 15 until his death on February 4 of 708.
VMJJp TIL that, when child actor Jackie Coogan turned 18 he found out all his money (around $68 million) had been spent by his mother who argued "No promises were ever made to give Jackie anything. Every dollar a kid earns before he is 21 belongs to his parents."
6EYDl TIL about the Kearny fallout meter, designed such that someone with a normal mechanical ability would be able to construct it before or during a nuclear attack, using common household items
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6EmNl TIL that "Monty Python’s Flying Circus" considered other names before settling on the one they did, among them "Arthur Megapode’s Cheap Show", "Owl Stretching Time", "Vaseline Parade" and "A Clump of Plinths"