› added 12 years ago

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TIL: In 1770, British Parliament passed a law that made wearing makeup a crime akin to witchcraft. The reasoning behind the law was that men were enchanted by a false face, and they were due an annulment once they realized what their wives really looked like.

WkP9N TIL that while undergoing screening for kidney donation to her son, a 64 yr. old woman found she had no gallbladder and no spleen despite never undergoing surgical removal. The rare birth defect was diagnosed, and she was still able to donate her kidney.
VM548 TIL that Stephanie Kwolek the inventor of Kevlar was working on finding a new, lightweight substitute for steel belting in automobile tires, on fears of a looming oil shortage and in anticipation of a market for lighter tires. What resulted was a new fiber five times stronger than steel by weight.
MewW TIL Muslims do not “struggle” to pray in space, and Islamic scholars have convened on the topic twice and published their scholarly opinions in “Muslim Obligations in the International Space Station”
P1OZG TIL the male gharial crocodile's hollow bulbous nasal protuberance starts growing over the nostrils around age 11.5. The bulbous snout tip enables hissing that can be heard 75 metres (246 feet) away. The gharial is the only living crocodile with visible sexual dimorphism
neebB TIL On September 11, 1980, Joseph Scalise and a colleague, Arthur Rachel, undertook a $3.6 million jewel robbery in broad daylight at Graff's jewelry store in London's busy Knightsbridge area, stealing the 45-carat Marlborough diamond, along with many other jewels.