› added 6 years ago

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TIL that matches weren't invented until 1826. As John Walker stirred a pot of chemicals, a lump formed on the end of the mixing stick. He tried scraping the dried chemicals off, igniting the stick and accidentally inventing matches.

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via reddit.com

D1gKD TIL the guy who ate a whole Cessna airplane was awarded a bronze plaque by the Guinness Book of World Records. He was so honoured that he ate the plaque.
a8e0J TIL that The Royal Game of Ur is the oldest known board game in the world. The oldest set found is of Ancient Sumerian from the 3rd millennium BC. It was popular for several thousand years, and for good reason. Here is the game explained by Dr. Irving Finkel (it actually looks fun)
mxXNx TIL that the most popular book in the English-speaking world during the Gilded Era 1890s was "Progress and Poverty", a book about how land prices and rents cause economic boom/bust cycles and poverty.
6EVwJ TIL that singer-songwriter Tori Amos, received a full scholarship to the Peabody Institute at Johns Hopkins University at the age of five. She is the youngest person ever to have been admitted. At the age of eleven, she was expelled for what Rolling Stone described as "musical insubordination".
Oo8Yg TIL the actor Matthew Perry played the videogame Fallout 3 so often, he got carpal tunnel syndrome and had to see a doctor.