› added 3 years ago

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TIL Walgreens grew dramatically (from 20 to 525 stores) during prohibition in the 1920s because they sold "prescription" alcohol (and milkshakes)

Read more history.howstuffworks.com

via reddit.com

rNdJd TIL John Madden, the football coach, did not in fact create the Madden women’s shoes brand
QjGE TIL Lenovo Computers is partially owned by the Chinese government and their computers come pre loaded with secret back door access. As a result MI6, the CIA and other spy agencies have banned their use.
GAwdg TIL Valentine's Day may have roots in the Roman festival of Lupercalia. At the festival, naked priests, smeared in the blood of a goat would parade through the streets with strips of bloody goat hide, whipping any women they saw. Men randomly drew women's names from jars to be coupled with.
wLEXW TIL that after being shot in the frontal lobe during WWI, a Hungarian man named Paul Kern became unable to fall asleep. Baffling doctors, he did not present any other symptom other than his inability to sleep and an occasional headache. He went on to live a full, sleepless life.
BrR6y TIL of the first transcontinental trip across the United States in an automobile. In 1903 two men and a dog used 800 gallons of gas and spent/lost $8000 over 63 days to travel from San Francisco to New York in a car with no roof or windshield to win a $50 bet that they never collected.