› added 12 years ago

178

TIL America is only the 9th fattest country in the world

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JYwl1 TIL that Theodore Roosevelt was shot before a speech in Milwaukee and refused to have medical treatment until he delivered his 90 minute speech, in which he showed off the bullet wound to the crowd
9YbOQ TIL US you do not actually have the right to a trial by jury unless the sentence is greater than 6 months
dD6vZ TIL that Roger Corman, director of low-budget movies, helped kick start the careers of Francis Ford Coppola, Martin Scorsese, James Cameron, and Ron Howard. He reportedly told Howard: "If you do a good job on this film, you'll never have to work for me again."
brK0 TIL in literature there is a principle called Chekhov’s gun. This principle requires that every element in a text is necessary with no extra information at all.
a8DPM TIL about Washington D. C.'s Height of Buildings Act of 1899 - still in effect. New technologies in construction were allowing for taller buildings but people were afraid of what they didn't understand. Also, fire fighting equipment, at this time, could only reach a maximum height of 130 feet.