› added 1 year ago

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TIL in 1947, a moth got trapped between the relay on the Harvard's Mark II Calculator, making the worlds first computer bug an actual insect

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via reddit.com

MepDa TIL In the early 1930s one of the measures enacted by Brazil to alleviate the economic impact from the great depression was "Quota do sacrifício" [or Quota of Sacrifice] where the government ordered farmers to collect all coffee, pile it up and light it on fire.
PYgyg TIL 20% of teens in the UK think Winston Churchill is a fictional character
wopmJ TIL Reading, PA is 69% Hispanic
v1QkK TIL the word vodka means "water" in Slavic. The word originates from court documents from Poland in 1405. In the early days, spirits were used as medicine - a Polish physician wrote in 1534 that vodka could serve "to increase fertility & awaken lust"
vn87 TIL NOAA has had a 400 sq ft underwater research base for 30 years; long term residents are called ‘aquanauts’