› added 6 years ago

93

TIL of Gen. Gregor MacGregor, a Scottish con man who ran the “Poyais Scheme,” in which he convinced the entirety of the UK that he was the head of the (non-existent) paradise-like Kingdom of Poyais, going so far as to write a constitution for Poyais and establish several Poyais embassies in the UK.

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jZ8X TIL that if you have 23 people in a room, there’s a 50/50 chance two people have the same birthday. If there are just 57 people, there’s a 99% chance.
1avEr TIL Garfield phones have been washing up on a beach in France for over 20 years. A shipping container fell off the cargo ship in a storm and the locals can do nothing about it.
8e7bb TIL that in the first 40 years of the US Interstate Highway System, it directly saved the lives of 187,000 people, prevented injuries to nearly 12 million people and returned $6 in economic productivity for each dollar that it costs.
OGnmX TIL that a well-respected British academic known for his work on the dead sea scrolls, argued that Jesus was a mushroom
e1xJ TIL Horton Hears a Who, by Dr. Seuss, is an allegory for post-WWII US occupation of Japan. Seuss, who was vehemently anti-Japanese during the conflict, had a drastic change of heart after visiting postwar Japan. He dedicated the book to a Japanese friend.