› added 5 years ago

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TIL about PS General Slocum, a passenger steamboat that burned and sank into the East River in 1904. An estimated 1,021 of the 1,342 passengers died, the largest loss of life in terms of disaster in NYC until 9/11.

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M7roV TIL of the Wilhelm scream. The Wilhelm scream is a stock sound effect that has been used in a number of films and TV series, beginning in 1951 with the film Distant Drums. The scream is usually used when someone is shot, falls from a great height, or is thrown from an explosion.
KOEG9 Today I learned Americans were the ones to introduce the use of shotguns in warfare during WW1. They were so effective at clearing trenches, that they were called "trench brooms" and the Germans complained about its use and how it caused unnecessary suffering.
4ZBb TIL The Japanese Yakuza use a racketeering practice known as Sōkaiya to extort money from businesses. They buy enough shares to have a seat at meetings, then threaten to show up and disclose secrets about company leaders. This usually works because Japanese fear shame more than anything.
epyKg TIL that the close friendship between the twin border towns of St. Stephen, Canada and Calais, US dates to the War of 1812, when the British aided St. Stephen with protective gunpowder against the Americans, who then gave it to Calais for their Fourth of July celebrations
b9wB4 TIL Ronald Reagan holds the record for both the coldest Inauguration (7 degrees) and the record for the warmest Inaguration (55 degrees)