› added 11 years ago

79

TIL that in 1869, Chinese and Irish labourers working on the Central Pacific Railway managed to lay down 10 miles of tracks in just one day, something that has never been matched since.

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xVZbg TIL that after France surrendered to the Nazis, Winston Churchill ordered the destruction of the French Navy, killing 1,300 formerly-allied sailors.
wKMJ TIL Physicist Richard Feynman memorized pi up to the 762nd digit, where there are six 9’s in a row, just so he could joke, “…9, 9, 9, 9, 9, 9 and so on…”. For this reason, this sequence of 9’s is named the Feynman Point.
jNbMX TIL in 1896, Bill Crush orchestrated the spectacle of smashing two trains into each other completely on purpose. Although no one was within 200 yards of the impact, the explosion from the steam engines killed two spectators and injured more. The event was considered a big PR and financial success.
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QJpGk TIL the Missouri Bar has produced coloring books to inform children about the functions of the government and the function of lawyers and judges, and made them available for free.