› added 5 years ago

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TIL in 1795 a treaty with Britain was so unpopular that graffiti was scrawled on the governor of NY's house that said "Damn John Jay! Damn everyone who won't damn John Jay! Damn everyone that won't put lights in his windows and sit up all night damning John Jay!"

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vpAR TIL Acme City whistle founder Joseph Hudson accidentally dropped his violin and it shattered on the floor. As the violin broke, it emitted a unique warbling sound and led him to an idea to putting a pea in a whistle. Pea whistles went on to replace policemen’s ineffective rattles for communicating.
P9AO TIL that Japanese Macaque monkeys in 1953 started washing their food before consuming it. They now evolved to seasoning it!
DQAEJ TIL that when Indian prime minister Indira Gandhi ordered an assault on the most holy Sikh temple, security services removed Sikhs from her bodyguards, including one of her favorite guards. She promptly reinstated him, and a few months later he assassinated her.
KYvpa TIL in a family with twelve children, six of the boys were diagnosed with schizophrenia and were later found to possess a genetic mutation that is so vital to brain function that it could help researchers understand how schizophrenia works.
xVWEB TIL of Jean de Selys Longchamps, a Belgian aristocrat who flew with the RAF during World War II. After learning that his father had been murdered by the Nazis, he flew to Brussels and machine gunned the Gestapo headquarters. He was demoted for insubordination but also awarded a medal for heroism