› added 9 years ago

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TIL that England, France, and Scotland all used to assess a ‘window tax’. Tax assessors would count the number of windows on a home or apartment and charge for every window on the assumption that the more windows you had, the bigger your home, and the more money you could afford to pay.

mLNv TIL that if a female Great White Shark was born during the filming of Jaws 3D (1983), it would only now be able to start reproducing. Great Whites are estimated to take thirty-three years to reach sexual maturity.
v6j8 TIL that in 1890 an Oberlin College professor gave a lecture on then-rare aluminum, stating ‘if anyone could make this on a commercial scale, he would be a benefactor to the world and would also make a great fortune.’ In attendance was Charles Hall, who took him up on the challenge – and succeeded.
nWerW TIL that New York Times has occasionally experienced gaps in publication due to multiple strikes in its history. One such strike occurred in 1978. Various papers formed to fill the gap including the satirical Not The New York Times.
9Y1Z6 TIL that Foxconn factories manufactured an estimated 40% of all consumer electronics sold worldwide. This includes BlackBerry, iPad, iPhone 11, iPod, Kindle, Nintendo 3DS, Nokia devices, Xiaomi devices, PlayStation 3, PlayStation 4, Wii U, Xbox 360, Xbox One, and several CPU sockets.
VoRQ TIL a Moon-sized diamond was found in space, and it has been dubbed “Lucy” in reference to the Beatles’ song, “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds”.