› added 7 years ago

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TIL about the Pitch Drop Experiment. A lump of pitch was placed in a funnel in 1927. Only nine drops have fallen in 90 years.

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gr0VX TIL: In the 1920s there was a mob hitman called Willie "Two-Knife" Altieri who was noted to have soft womanly hands, used his knives to clean his fingernails, and slept with them. He killed dozens of rival gangsters before disappearing in 1928 after Al Capone killed his boss.
6jV7 TIL Saudi Arabia tore down a centuries old Turkish fortress, at one time used to protect Mecca and the Kaaba from invaders and bandits, to build a Megahotel complex.
DRKe TIL that Theodore Roosevelt once supported a bill that would have allowed the introduction of Hippos into the Bayous of Louisiana. It fell just short of being passed.
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