› added 5 years ago

80

TIL of Stephen Blumberg, a book thief who stole more than 23,600 books worth $5.3 million. He took them from more than 268 universities and museums. It was the largest book theft in the states, and Blumberg has been recognised as the most successful book thief in US history.

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XE1NP TIL scientists didn't know where birds went in the winter until 1822. That year, a stork was seen in Germany with an arrow from central Africa lodged in its neck, having flown 3,000 km in its wounded state. This provided the final proof that birds migrate.
J1Mkk TIL The Hardy Tree in London’s St. Pancras churchyard is named for Thomas Hardy. The Victorian writer worked at the burial ground in the 1860s and rearranged tombstones around the base of an ash tree to make room for a railway expansion.
69XPw TIL that after John III Sobieski of Poland-Lithuania defeated the Ottomans at the Battle of Vienna in 1683, the Kangxi Emperor of Qing China wrote an eulogy praising the Polish king. John III Sobieski later sent a portrait of himself to Kangxi.
mxVAE TIL Planned Obsolescence Is A Legal Policy Used Among Corporations That Suggests Intentional Manufacturing Of Nondurable Products
nerM7 TIL While Leon Trotsky was returning to Russia after the Communist Revolution he was arrested and detained in Nova Scotia for a month. His revolutionary speeches were so popular that when he was banned from speaking, 500 prisoners signed a petition. The whole cell block cheered when he was released.