› added 12 years ago

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TIL that every year engineering students hang a VW bug from a bridge in Vancouver

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via reddit.com

9VMB TIL astronomer Percival Lowell believed that he was the first person to observe canals on Venus, but because of a faulty adjustment of the eyepiece of his telescope, he was in fact looking at the blood vessels in his own eye.
dDA9E TIL a super-volcanic eruption in Indonesia caused a "Year Without Summer" in Europe and Eastern USA in 1816. This indirectly led to the invention of the bicycle, the writing of Frankenstein and Mormonism.
X0eEQ TIL Previous to the Euro there was the Latin Monetary Union in which many European countries would mint coins to the same LMU standards allowing for ease of exchange. The LMU was established in 1865 and disbanded in 1927. The standards fell out of favor due to currency debasement and WW1.
XWyQ TIL Tom Carvel began selling ice cream out of his truck in 1929. One day he had a flat tire, so he pulled over and began selling his melting ice cream to vacationers driving by. They enjoyed the softer version more than the fully frozen dessert, and the Carvel soft-serve business was born.
yVya TIL a couple bought a box of textbooks for $10. Inside, they found a 25-cent bill signed by the president of the Republic of Texas…it sold for over $63,000