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TIL that Ben Franklin's invention of the lightning rod was blamed by church leaders for the 1755 Cape Ann earthquake off the coast of Colonial Massachusetts — as his "heretical rods" interfered with the "artillery of Heaven" & deprived God of using lightning as "tokens of His displeasure."

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xVKEo TIL: A chemistry professor imported coca leaves to Germany that he gave his student to analyze. The student isolated a compound that had "a bitter taste, promote the flow of saliva and leave a peculiar numbness, followed by a sense of cold when applied to the tongue.” The compound was cocaine.
0dAbp TIL The proposed Helsinki-Tallinn Railway Tunnel, when completed, will be the largest underground tunnel in the world. It will help to reduce time to cross the current Gulf of Finland route from two hours to approximately 20 minutes.
8ekZG TIL that Tom Cruise is the first actor to legally touch the Hollywood sign
JEp1 TIL the parody Twitter account DPRK_News has been quoted by the New York Times, the Washington Post, Newsweek, and Fox News as if speaking for the real North Korean state news agency.
GYar4 TIL Summer on Uranus lasts 47 years, and so does winter