› added 6 years ago

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TIL when the Mona Lisa was stolen from the Louvre in 1911, the empty space it left on the wall attracted more visitors than the painting had.

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GYPpG TIL the reason we write from left to right is to not smudge ink. The Greeks (from whom English is derived) mostly had right handed stone workers and when they began to use papyrus, left to right allowed them to see what they were writing as well as prevent ruining the paper by smudging the ink
XE7oE TIL that the mayor of Chicago in 1981 moved into the most notorious public housing complex in the country as a political stunt. She lasted three weeks.
E1W8x TIL Memorial Day was started by former slaves as Decoration Day during the Civil War to celebrate emancipation and those who fought for justice. During the Jim Crow era, the holiday was whitewashed into the apolitical Memorial Day to erase the "divisive" issues of slavery and Black citizenship
NXy6b TIL that the political terms "left-wing" and "right-wing" originated during the French Revolution. From the front of the Assembly, the aristocracy sat on the right side (or right wing) of the room, and the commoners sat on the left side (or left wing) of the room.
1aYKV TIL in 1972, The Los Alamos National Laboratories patented a nuclear tunnel boring machine, claiming it could reach depths of 18+ miles. It uses molten lithium to melt through rock, leaving behind a tunnel with a glass-like finish.