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TIL In 1896 in Texas, a railroad agent organized a head-on collision between 2 locomotives as part of a publicity stunt for his railroad company and got 40K people to show up. Unexpectedly, the crash caused both engine boilers to explode, killing 3 people and injuring scores of others.

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6E0xX TIL: Red, yellow, and green bell peppers are basically the same pepper, just at different levels of ripening.
jddM TIL Neil deGrasse Tyson danced Ballet, Jazz, Afro-Carribean, and Latin Ballroom style while attending Harvard. He also won a gold medal in Latin Ballroom style with the University of Texas dance team
D1vNr TIL, mongooses found in Hawai’i are native to India and were originally introduced to Hawai’i Island in 1883 by the sugar industry to control rats in sugarcane fields and have since caused the extinction of 8 federally listed endangered Hawaiian birds.
wL9eY TIL Research on classical music audiences in the US showed that the Symphony is excellent at attracting new audiences nationwide, but 90 percent of first-time attendees never come back again. Harry Potter will sell out any day of the week — but all the data shows that those people don’t come back
5Yrv9 TIL in 1979 when the Skylab re-entry approached the San Francisco Examine offered $10,000 to the first person to deliver a piece to them within 72hrs knowing it wasn't heading toward the USA. A 17yr old Aussie collected a piece, jumped on a plane with no passport or luggage and collected his prize.