› added 5 years ago

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TIL that Joseph Heller's manuscript for "Catch-22" was rejected by publishers 22 times

Read more theguardian.com

via reddit.com

4kPkR TIL that the Mechanical Turk was an unbeatable chess machine, supposedly. It travelled the world and beat everyone. A century later, the son of the owner confessed that the Turk was really just a chessmaster hidden inside a box.
oR8jA TIL the prevalence of food allergies in children In the US increased 18% between 1997-2007.
MeRNm TIL if the asteroid that killed the dinosaurs arrived just 30 seconds later, it would have landed in deep ocean water which would have absorbed much of the force of the impact. The resulting extinction would have been less severe, many dinosaur species would have survived, and humans would not exist
loe9B TIL that over 1,300 schools in the US were closed in 2009 in response to the H1N1 Swine Flu outbreak
9wgLG TIL that the girl on the famous UK test card is Caorle Hersee, a costume designer who was featured on the card when she was nine, becoming the most aired person in television history, appearing on air for over 70,000 hours.