› added 3 months ago

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TIL that Michael Hart, the founder of Project Gutenberg, typed 313 books into the computer by hand to create free e-books.

Read more gutenberg.org

via reddit.com

kOM71 TIL German was the first language of the majority of households until the 1950s in Schaumburg (Illinois)
YBV7 TIL The CIA spent $15 million and 5 years developing a robotic kitty that they could use to spy on the Soviets. A few minutes after being released, the kitty was run over by a cab.
gMOKA TIL In 1906, A Congolese man called Ota Benga from a Mbuti pygmy tribe was held in a human zoo exhibition in Bronx, as a display of "earlier stage" of human evolution. In 1916, after getting out and unable to return to his homeland, he shot himself in the heart with a stolen pistol and died at 32.
jNvxM TIL that WW2 featured the Deadliest Siege in History(Leningrad), the Deadliest Battle in History(Stalingrad), and the Deadliest Bombing in History(Tokyo), all in the same war.
Gek5 TIL that Boring, Oregon decided, on the suggestion of a Scottish cyclist who was passing through in 2012 on holiday, to pair with Dull, Scotland as a sister city in an effort to promote tourism in both places as a play on their names.