› added 1 month ago

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TIL that Boston Corbett (soldier who killed John Booth) castrated himself with a pair of scissors to avoid temptation upon seeing prostitutes

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p8NZb TIL during the 1992 Los Angeles riots, 1,000 Federal SWAT agents (e.g. FBI HRT, BORTAC, U.S. Marshals SOG, etc.) were deployed to L.A. to serve alongside 3,500 Federal troops in helping state and local forces. It was the largest federal law enforcement response to a riot in any U.S. city in history.
4V9J TIL that J.R.R. Tolkien’s fictional character Smaug has a ‘conservattive,’ estimated net worth of 61 billion.
xVBv5 TIL that Charging Bull, the famous statue on Wall Street, was installed secretly and illegally outside the New York Stock Exchange in 1989 following the 1987 stock market crash. The sculpture was seized and impounded by NYPD, but re-installed two blocks south of the Exchange after a public outcry.
4X7p5 TIL that according to cognitive dissonance theory, the "Ben Franklin effect" means that whether you choose to treat someone well or not, you will devise a reason for why they deserved it, either way.
4ZLg TIL there is a giant salt mine 1200 feet beneath Detroit