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TIL that while Issac Newton was essentially quarantined at his home when Cambridge was closed in 1665 due to the Plague, he discovered the groundwork for his theories of calculus and the laws of motion.

b9Vwj TIL that a factor in the fall of Constantinople was a huge cannon called Basilica that was over 8m long, .75m in diameter, and could fire 270kg stone balls over 1.5km. Basilica took 3 hours to reload, and collapsed under its own recoil after 6 weeks of use. It took 60 oxen and 400 men to transport.
4XR1b TIL In 2012 Pizza Hut planned to release a limited edition perfume that that smelled like fresh dough. Thousands responded requesting the perfume for themselves but only 110 bottles were produced and shared with lucky Facebook fans who won a bottle. The packaging resembled mini pizza boxes.
5eR8 TIL A fictitious soft drink was created to prove the effectiveness of advertising on buses. So many people started demanding it that the drink actually starting being made by restaurants and soft drink companies
R7vr7 TIL about Almon Brown Strowger. Strowger's undertaking business was losing clients to a competitor whose telephone-operator wife was redirecting everyone who called for Strowger. Motivated to remove the intermediary operator, he invented the first automatic telephone exchange in 1889.
90Ep TIL The Aztecs regarded childbirth as a form of battle. Women who died during childbirth were thought to rise to one of the highest heavens - the same one as for male warriors who died in battle.