› added 4 months ago

20

TIL About the 'Balloon Hoax'. Perpetrated by Edgar Allen Poe in The New York Sun it purported to tell the story of a three day lighter than air balloon trip across the Atlantic. The story was revealed as a hoax two days later.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

xVA0 TIL the nuclear family started when Homo Ergasters’ pelvises narrowed for upright walking; this narrowed the birth canal which caused babies to be born with less developed (smaller) brains which caused mothers to lean on their partners for support since they’re busy caring for the helpless newborn
4gvb TIL Hong Kong has the fastest internet upload and download speed in the world at 56.78 mbps and 68.27 mbps, respectively. This is 48.76 mbps faster than average of the G8 countries for both indexes.
R7X98 TIL that quahogs (a common clam) are among the longest-lived marine organisms in the world and can live up to 200 years old. They don't reproduce until around 6 years old, and don't reach commercially harvestable size until about 20 years old.
VMNyp Today I learned that there are 72 million babies born around the world this year alone and we have not even reached the end of the year!
VMWlD TIL Joe Trombino was an armored truck guard who was seriously wounded in a 1983 armed robbery, was at the epicenter of the 1993 WTC bombing just hours before it went off, and eventually died on 9/11 when the first tower collapsed on him during a delivery