› added 5 months ago

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TIL John Quincy Adams escaped unscathed from the first fatal train accident in recorded US history. Two died & 21 were injured, including Cornelius Vanderbilt, who broke a leg.

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BPAr TIL in the year 1000, to save Iceland from civil war, both parties elected the wisest man to suggest a peaceful solution. He decided on a mass conversion to Christianity that tolerated pagan worship in private. And everyone agreed. He even converted himself.
j645p TIL George Harrison once told John Bonham, “The problem with you guys is you never do ballads.“ The conversation eventually reached Jimmy Page who vowed “I’ll give him a ballad,” and wrote “Rain Song.“
lmMV TIL that researchers testing insect repellents used a Victoria Secret perfume as a standard, accidentally discovered that it repels mosquitos better than many repellents on the market
D0mg TIL London Zoo had the first ever public aquarium and even coined the word. Before this an aquarium was called an underwater vivarium.
JYkZk TIL about the dangerous exploitative industry of Cobalt mining in the Democratic Republic of Congo in Africa. Most of the labor is done by children for very little pay. The demand ever increasing , this mineral fuels the tech industry, cobalt is used for batteries for phones, gadgets and e cars.