› added 5 months ago

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TIL that chickens are tiny dinosaurs and their closest living relative is the Tyrannosaurus rex

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8a97K TIL that Leah Betts, a girl that made headlines after dying from taking a single ecstasy pill, didn’t actually die directly from taking the drug, but instead from drinking 7 litres of water in 90 minutes. Ecstasy causes water retention, making even slightly high water consumption fatal.
69QoQ TIL about the only double barrel cannon in the world. When it was its first tested during the American Civil War, the chain snapped immediately and one ball tore into a nearby cabin, knocking down its chimney; the other spun off erratically and struck a nearby cow, killing it instantly.
VMQ7Z TIL The window tax was a property tax based on the number of windows in a house. To avoid the tax some houses from the period can be seen to have bricked-up window-spaces . In England and Wales it was introduced in 1696 and was repealed in 1851, France and Scotland also had window taxes.
vEJ7 TIL James Gandolfini bought 450 watches — 40 of which made of gold — for the cast and crew of The Sopranos at the end of the serie. Total retail value: 2 million USD.
XJnX TIL German scientist, Gerhard Domagk, developed the antibacterial agent Prontosil, a sulfonamide. He used this agent to treat his own daughter, preventing her from an arm amputation. He won the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1939.