› added 8 years ago

132

TIL of Joseph Bazalgette, a civil engineer who built an extensive sewer network in London which was instrumental in curbing cholera, typhus and typhoid epidemics. Later he started cleansing Thames.

00EN TIL Blockbusting, a business practice used by real estate brokers to buy a house in a white neighbourhood, rent it to a black family, and buy the rest of the neighbourhood at a discounted price after urging nervous white families to leave the neighbourhood.
v1w74 TIL If you take the long side of A4 paper and divide it by the short end you get root 2. They do this so that when you fold it in half, it stays the same ratio so there’s no distortion.
xVywg TIL Tyler Perry almost committed suicide to be rid of his father's beatings, changed his name so he wouldn't be associated with his father. Then, after his mother died, Tyler got a paternity test which proved, the man who raised him wasn't his biological father.
KO7RB TIL In Serbia, 2014, an 11-year-old girl was rescued from a bull mastiff as it attacked her and dragged her through the street, by a dachshund named Leo. The city of Pancevo erected a statue in Leo's honor after animal advocacy groups and activists fought to get it put up.
v1YZL TIL Bjarni Herjólfsson, a 10th century Norse explorer, was the first European to sight North America in 986 while blown off course for Greenland. Despite begging from his crew to explore, he refused to stop and look around. He was later criticized by King Eric of Norway for his lack of investigation