› added 10 months ago

34

TIL the building where the Triangle Shirtwaist fire took place is still standing and is used by NYU for its chemistry and biology departments.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

8a5a8 TIL that 19th century New York City was so lousy with oysters, they were typically sold for cheap from street carts for the working class. The remaining shells were then used as pavement for roads, crushed into mortar paste for construction, or burned for lime.
dDrnB TIL people say "Jesus H Christ" probably because English commoners read the insignia of the first three letters of Jesus's name in Greek ΙΗΣ as JHC and misheard the Lords payer as "Harold be thy name" and thought Harold was Jesus's middle name and Christ his last.
9YQJ6 TIL that every game of Windows Solitaire is winnable - except for one. Game #11982.
GARng TIL dyslexic World Memory Champion Dominic O’ Brien set a Guinness World Record by memorizing 2808 playing cards (54 packs) after looking at each card only once. He made only 8 errors.
ADal7 TIL the Jack of Clubs in a typical English/French deck is Lancelot, from Arthurian legend.