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TIL Nikola Tesla predicted the modern smartphone - in 1926.

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m9VP TIL that long ago, people chewed on tree bark as a method of pain relief. Willow bark has a high amount of salicylic acid, an ingredient still used in aspirin today.
Ypwgd TIL the Darien Scheme in 1698 was Scotland’s sole attempt at colonization. The effort failed but cost £400k (£71m inflation-adjusted) – about 20% of the nation’s capital. It crippled Scotland’s economy and was a major factor in its Act of Union with England in 1707, thus forming the United Kingdom.
Gek5 TIL that Boring, Oregon decided, on the suggestion of a Scottish cyclist who was passing through in 2012 on holiday, to pair with Dull, Scotland as a sister city in an effort to promote tourism in both places as a play on their names.
p8kkG TIL that Lea Thompson (Back to the Future) studied ballet as a girl & danced professionally by the age of 14, winning multiple prestigious scholarships. Told she did not have the right body to become a prima ballerina by Mikhail Baryshnikov himself, she changed her focus to acting.
gMen9 TIL a dust cloud in the year 536 plunged Europe into an 18-month-long winter, creating frosty summers and violently harsh winters. Nearly a third of Europe's population got wiped out, with death rates rising as high as 90% in some northern regions.