› added 5 years ago

84

TIL of the 'raising of Chicago'. In the mid-1850s Chicago buildings were raised multiple feet to improve drainage and reduce disease outbreaks

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v1Lax TIL that the written form of the Finnish language was largely created by one man, who was born at an unknown date somewhere around 1510. The invention of the printing press and the first sails to the Americas predate first texts ever written in Finnish.
YpOwW TIL that prawn and shrimp are not the same animal - they're not even closely related. They are in two different sub-orders of decapoda. As an example of what that means, cats and dogs are in different sub-orders of carnivora.
R77d4 TIL that on September 16, 1920, a bomb exploded on Wall Street outside the NYSE building, killing 33 people and injuring more than 400. The perpetrators were never found.
YVar TIL that pistol dueling with wax bullets was a popular pastime in the early 20th century and even featured as a sport in the 1908 Summer Olympics
yBA8 TIL that gagging when we see someone else vomiting is actually an evolved trait among primates. Humans would forage for food in groups. If any member of the group had an adverse reaction due to toxins in the food, it would be advantageous for the other members to take it out of their system too.