› added 9 years ago

229

TIL that in 2011, cell service was shut down in San Francisco at four BART stations to prevent protesters from organizing a peaceful demonstration.

Read more cnet.com

via reddit.com

GRp7 TIL Mormon founder Joseph Smith purchased Egyptian papyri from a traveling mummy exhibit. His translation of the text was entirely inaccurate but Mormons still regard this text to be true and as sacred as the Bible or Book of Mormon.
WZAA TIL That CAPTCHA is short for Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell Computers and Humans Apart
P7We TIL the Ottoman Sultan, Khaleefah Abdul-Majid I, declared his intention to send £10,000 to aid Ireland’s farmers. However, Queen Victoria intervened and requested that the Sultan send only £1,000, because she had sent only £2,000 herself.
WkEX9 TIL that in the middle of the Great Depression, a man placed an offer in an Ohio newspaper, saying: If you’re in trouble, write me. Many people sent him desperate letters, needing things like shoes, a coat, mercy, food, and to save their family from despair. And back came checks, under a pseudonym.
ADVNo TIL July 28, 1915 the US invaded and occupied Haiti. They moved the financial reserves to the United States and then rewrote Haiti’s Constitution to give foreigners land-owning rights.