› added 2 years ago

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TIL The Dutch East India Company was the the first publicly traded company in the world.

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17E8 TIL The late Michael Jackson had once approached J.K. Rowling about the possibility of doing a musical version of Harry Potter. J.K. Rowling said no to the idea.
yQjMa TIL A 4 year old boy fell and scraped his knee at the beach. Couple of weeks later a black bump started growing on his knee. When squeezed, a live snail emerged from the bump. The boy adopted the snail and named it "Turbo" after his favorite cartoon character.
bwZ0 TIL the Jesus nut is the bolt at the top of a helicopter shaft that holds it all together. It got its name because if it were to fail in flight, the only thing left to do would be to pray to Jesus.
LkRE0 TIL about the Santa Susana Field Laboratory, a series of nuclear reactors and processing labs with a history of meltdowns and fires that resulted in radiological releases 25 miles from downtown Los Angeles. The incident in 1959 was so bad they opened control room loading doors to vent contamination.
04AR TIL that people living within 2000 meters of an airport have higher levels of lead in their blood, which is linked to lower IQ in children and a host of diseases. Unlike cars and commercial airplanes, recreational airplanes still use leaded fuel.