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TIL that before British rule, India represented 30% of global GDP, by their independence it dropped to 2%. At the same time, Britain's share of the world economy rose from 2.9% in 1700 up to 9% in 1870 alone

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08ML TIL of a rare chronic sleep disorder called Fatal Familial Insomnia, which renders the victim unable to sleep. One man diagnosed with the illness, Michael Corke, died a month after his 42nd birthday, by which time he had been completely sleep-deprived for six months. It has no known cure.
AD5l4 TIL the Canadian Parliament once discussed how the country would deal with a zombie apocalypse; then Foreign Affairs Minister John Baird declared that "Canada will never become a safe haven for zombies, ever"
69Nn8 TIL 55 million years ago, the North Pole was a lot like Miami today. There were palm trees and alligators, and the temperature was around 74° F.
0w8DL TIL when Max Planck began his studies in Munich in 1874, his physics professor told him to not study physics because it was a mostly fully figured out field of science with little prospect of development and only two unsolved problems.These problems ended up being radioactivity and quantum physics.
wL4vJ TIL: Mistaken for an April Fool's Day joke when declassified in 2004 was a British military program for a nuclear weapon codenamed Brown Bunny. (It was renamed Blue Bunny --then Blue Peacock.) To keep the electronics warm if winter-deployed, a proposal called for using body heat from live chickens.