› added 8 years ago

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TIL that after his wife died because she couldn’t easily access medical attention, an Indian man spent 22 years cutting through the mountain that separated his village from the nearest medical center. The finished path shortened the necessary travel distance by 40 km. He used nothing but a chisel.

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PjwL TIL that the Empire State Building makes more money from the observation decks than it does from renting office space
E1P6d TIL in 2003, after Roy Hunt was brutally mauled by one of his tigers during their show in Vegas, the doctors removed a part of his skull to avoid his death from brain swelling, and placed it in a pocket inside of his abdomen until it was ready to be reattached.
yQaQX TIL the phrase "running amok" comes from a folk sickness in Malay/Indonesian cultures in which a man with no violent history will attempt to kill anyone he encounters in a sudden frenzy. It is thought an evil tiger spirit entered his body, therefore no ill will is held towards the man afterwards.
VMkQQ TIL Thomas Jefferson purchased a thermometer a few days before signing The Declaration of Independence. He noted that it was 76 degrees on Signing Day in Philadelphia.
E1pnX TIL that during the French Revolution the bodies of over 100 French royals were exhumed and tipped into mass graves. Parts of them were also seized; one man took "Dagobert’s jaw, a section of Saint Louis’ skull, the teeth of Henry III, Philippe Auguste’s hair and the leg of Catherine de' Medici".