› added 4 years ago

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TIL in 1879 it was estimated the Oxford English Dictionary to take 10 years for completion, but in five years they'd only reached the word "Ant". After crowdsourcing readers to help it was completed 44 years later. The publishers now estimate it would take a single person 120 years to just type it.

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GApxE TIL that in ancient Rome, there was a vending machine that dispensed holy water. Pilgrims would insert a coin and receive a measured amount of sacred water. It was one of the earliest recorded examples of a coin-operated machine!
kJLMg TIL Michael Jordan told director Ben Affleck that Viola Davis "has to" play his mom in Affleck's film Air. Casting Davis in a film was a lifelong career ambition for Affleck. When she said yes, he concluded that "a lot of it had to do with me being like, 'Michael Jordan wants you to play his mom.'”
6EQAl TIL the Confederacy had large support of Native Americans due to mutual distrust of the Federal Government and use of slavery. They mandated native representation and native sovereignty.
JYrV4 TIL about a tombstone mentality which is an attitude, in aviation air safety, of ignoring design defects until people have died because of them.
J1YLl TIL: Of Dagobert, the “DuckTales” Bandit. Frustrated artist Arno Funke built bombs and extorted high-end stores in the 1980s/1990s, calling himself Dagobert [for the German] Scrooge McDuck.He became a German folk hero, for his intricate mechanical devices, care in avoiding hurt, & intrepid escapes