› added 11 years ago

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TIL that the widow of the inventor of the Winchester rifle built a house with mazes and dead end staircases to confuse the ghosts of the people who were killed by her husbands rifles.

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4k14o TIL about the candle auction - a method of auction where the end of the auction is signaled by the expiration of a candle flame, which was intended to ensure that no one could know exactly when the auction would end and make a last-second bid.
1aMxV TIL the Kentucky Derby has been held uninterrupted since 1875 even through the Great Depression & both World Wars. Millions of people around the world bet on the race with a wagering total of $209 million in 2017.
JlE1 TIL that typically a Boeing 747 carries 416 passengers, but when a group of Ethiopian refugees were evacuated in 1991 they managed to fit 1,122 people on board. They originally planned to board 760 people, but got to 1,122 because “ the passengers were so light”.
Me5xW TIL of the Russian "Bitch Wars" following WW2. Prisoners who agreed to fight in WW2 in return for reduced sentences were thought of as bitches by the criminals who refused the offer, and they fought in prison.
Og8L TIL that the Automotive Crash Injury Research Center originally used corpses rather than dummies when crash-testing cars