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TIL that the name ‘Jessica’ was created by Shakespeare in 1596

Read more behindthename.com

via ift.tt

w766 TIL In 1896 in Texas, a railroad agent organized a head-on collision between 2 locomotives as part of a publicity stunt for his railroad company and got 40K people to show up. Unexpectedly, the crash caused both engine boilers to explode, killing 3 people and injuring scores of others.
m1rRy TIL: Camels served in the US Civil War
oBk9o TIL that Walt Disney invented the modern public trash can. He did this to keep the smell of garbage down at Disney. Previous to this, public trash cans were made of wire mesh, which allowed goop to seep out of the bottom and the smell to escape.
pZGb TIL there is a giant softshell turtle that spends 95% of its life buried and motionless under river sand, surfacing just twice a day to take a breath.
L779 TIL of Manichaeism. It spanned from the Roman Empire to China. Founded by Mani, who claimed to be a successor of Buddha, Zoroaster, and Jesus. St. Augustine was a Manichee before he apostatised. Today none of its texts has survived and it is now extinct due to a worldwide holocaust of its adherents.