› added 9 years ago

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TIL “Chimney Sweeps” were originally enslaved children who would shimmy up a chimney with a cleaning brush - and oftentimes they would get stuck in the process and die. The deaths were so common that brick masons developed a technique to open chimneys and extract bodies quickly.

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R7R64 The first modern crematory was built in the U.S. in 1876. A second came eight years later. By 1900, there were 20. The practice got another boost in 1963 when the Catholic Church reversed its opinion on cremation during the Vatican II reforms and said cremation was permitted (though ash scattering was not). Four decades ago, less than 5 percent of American were cremated when they died. Now that figure stands at nearly half.
9YMAm TIL Chernobyl has been safe to visit since 2011 and that most of the danger is not from radiation but from unmaintained structures.
ZpewG TIL Sinéad O’Connor's was a victim of the Catholic Church's Magdalene Laundries
D1jrD TIL that moose can not only swim as fast as 6mph (3 times faster than the average human) but also dive up to 5m (according to some sources) and hold their breathe for about a minute.
xVy85 TIL: That xylitol, a becoming more popular natural sweetener, is safe for humans to digest, but is toxic and can be fatal for dogs.