› added 2 years ago

91

TIL that there's no such thing as a "tree" (phylogenetically)

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R7ODw TIL In 1574, the Dutch city of Leiden was under siege by Spanish forces. The defenders breached dykes, flooding the low lying countryside. Naval ships reached the city on Oct 3rd, bringing bread and herring and ending the siege. Leiden still gives citizens free bread and herring every Oct 3rd.
AmMa TIL Adam Rainer is the only person in history to be categorized as both a dwarf and a giant in his lifetime. At age 21 he measured 3 feet 10.5 inches. By age 32 he measured 7 feet 2 inches tall.
loVWa TIL Industrialist George Pullman was buried in a lead-lined mahogany coffin sealed in a subterranean reinforced concrete cube. After the national Pullman Strike failed, his family feared strikers would defile his gravesite in retaliation.
4XV65 TIL soldiers used to open cigarette packs from the bottom to avoid having to “bum” them to others since from a shirt pocket the pack appeared unopened
Ypgmr TIL: A blind mechanical engineer named Ralph Teetor invented cruise control in 1945 after riding with his lawyer, who had a nasty habit of speeding up and slowing down too frequently. It was originally called "Speedostat".