› added 5 years ago

138

TIL Bank of America was originally called Bank of Italy

Read more occ.treas.gov

via reddit.com

9wxN6 TIL Painting Easter eggs was first recorded in the 13th century. The church banned the eating of eggs during Holy Week (the week before Easter). Unaware of the ban, chickens continued laying eggs during this week, which were decorated rather than consumed.
9YKmX TIL that the white flag of surrender had been adopted independently by multiple civilizations because it was often improvised from cheap fabrics on hand.
R4D1 TIL that China has built a new skyscraper every five days, more than 30 airports, metros in 25 cities, the three longest bridges in the world, more than 6,000 miles of high speed railway lines and 26,000 miles of motorway, all in the last 5 years.
E1AJx TIL Hepatitis C is the most common cause of cirrhosis and liver cancer. From it's discovery in 1989, it took less than 25 years to identify, model and create an oral treatment that can completely cure a person in 8-12 weeks. 1-2% of the world population has HepC. Most don't even know it.
QNDna TIL that "Hero Rats" can be used as a failsafe to check for tuberculosis at a rate of 100 samples per twenty minutes, a task that takes human microbiologist four days.