› added 12 years ago

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TIL that President Roosevelt briefly used a limousine seized from Al Capone because the secret service was concerned that the existing presidential limo wasn’t sufficiently armored.

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4kWDb TIL Caesar salad was invented in a Tijuana, Mexico restaurant when a Fourth of July rush in 1924 depleted the kitchen's supplies. Chef Caesar Cardini, an Italian restauranteur, made do with what he had, adding the dramatic flair of table-side tossing by the chef.
NXwQJ TIL that in an ‘unfortunate evolutionary coincidence’ the δ-hexatoxins in Sydney Funnel-web spider venom are exceptionally dangerous to humans. A bite can kill a human in as little as 15 minutes.
1LBr TIL of Bill Baird, who was convicted as a felon in 1967 for giving a speech to 1,500 college students about birth control and then handing out one package of condoms and one of contraceptive foam. His actions would not be legal until 1972.
YpJBW TIL Dartmouth (and a few other schools) makes all its students pass a swim test before the graduate, so that they won’t drown and waste their education.
Oop66 TIL Shakespeare's Globe, a reconstruction of the original Globe Theatre, is the first and only building in London permitted to have a thatched roof since the Great Fire of 1666.