› added 5 years ago

79

TIL Upon his death in 1790, Benjamin Franklin willed Philadelphia and Boston over $4,000 each with the stipulation it could not be spent for two centuries -- it then grew to millions of dollars.

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VO84 TIL in September, 2014, GlaxoSmithKline accidentally dumped 45 litres of concentrated live polio virus solution into the Lasne river in Belgium.
KYYkR TIL Galen argued that the liver must be the primary organ of the body because of its role in the production of the humours. The word for "liver" was often substituted for “heart” in ancient Greek poetry, in phrases like "hit in the liver"
o6V7 TIL: While searching for Steve Fossett’s plane crash, at least 8 previously uncharted plane crashes were located.
4b8X TIL that due to the lax laws that pertained to divorce in Reno, Nevada in the early 1900’s, “divorce ranches” were created where women, who were denied divorces in their own home states, could stay at, establish residency, and gain a divorce in Reno within the span of six weeks.
oBZaY TIL of Marjorie McCall who "lived once and was buried twice". When she died the first time of illness, grave robbers tried to steal her ring by cutting off her finger, waking her from her coma. She left her grave to live on until she died (again) some years later