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TIL During the American Revolution, “Columbia” was used to describe all of America; that is why the capital of the USA is called Washington, District of Columbia

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4kpDX TIL Margaret Knight (1838-1914) invented a machine to mass produce flat-bottomed paper bags and, after winning a lawsuit against a fraudster who copied her design, the patent was issued in 1871. Her first invention was when she was 12 years old (and began working in a factory). She had 87 patents.
XElMj TIL a study found that the amount couples spend on an engagement ring and their ceremony is inversely associated with marriage duration. Couples who spend more on their weddings are more likely to get divorced.
ZQpD TIL that lightning can cause red, jellyfish-shaped flashes as big as 48 by 48 km to appear above thunderclouds. These are called sprites (air spirits), after their elusiveness, and are actually clusters of balls of plasma.
QJ1e9 TIL of the "Rihanna Curse," which saw countries like the U.K., New Zealand, and Romania experiencing the worst storms in their history at the same time that "Umbrella" topped each country's charts. Once the song got bumped from the top spot, the weather subsided.
4XjVX TIL of the $23 million dollar toilets designed by NASA for deep space missions. With odor control being a serious issue, NASA pays certified sniffers to smell the toilets after they've been used to evaluate odor-control measures. The lead engineer calls them the "unsung heroes of the space program".