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TIL that a health benefit of roller coasters is that the centripetal force can help pass kidney stones

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via ift.tt

M7GyV TIL that in 1861 the first Kansas state legislature gave women the right to vote in school elections.
GYrL1 TIL that the land around General Sherman, the tallest tree on Earth, was briefly taken over by a socialist colony in 1886. Noting Sherman's role in the expulsion of Native Americans, the tree was renamed the Karl Marx Tree. The tree's original name was restored after Sequoia NP was founded.
kOLj1 TIL at least 749 American servicemen were killed in England, April 1944, during large-scale rehearsals for D-Day. Rumoured 450 friendly fire deaths were followed the next day with 749 deaths by attacking E-boats. The incident was under the strictest secrecy and was only nominally reported afterwards
0dgMA TIL 601 Lexington Avenue—once the 7th-tallest building in the world—was in danger of being toppled over by high winds due to a structural error. It was secretly fixed and the public had no idea anything was wrong until an article about it came out decades later.
BBKr TIL an art professor from Syracuse University created a single tree that bears 40 different types of fruit after learning that an orchard full of 150-200 year-old native fruit trees was going to be destroyed.