› added 2 years ago

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TIL NASCAR racing started in Appalachia, where moonshiners would modify their cars to outrun law enforcement. They studied aerodynamics, and would rig cars with the ability to drop nails, oil, or clouds of smoke to hinder police.

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6EoRZ TIL Elizabeth Taylor‘s voluminous eyelashes were caused by a rare genetic mutation which was responsible for her having 2 rows of eyelashes.
pexZ TIL that in 2010, two women planning to blow themselves up on New Years Eve in Russia’s Red Square were foiled by a spam text message which blew one of them up early.
D1KxV TIL in 1974, a couple disappeared along with their yacht from the uninhabited Palmyra Atoll while vacationing. Theyd feuded with a man on the island, whose boat was not seaworthy and was out of supplies. 7 years later, the wife's body washed ashore Palmyra, and the man was convicted of her murder.
5VQ6p TIL in 1999, British geneticist John Stephen Jones FRS revealed that approx.11 million of the (then) UK population of 58.7 million had a recent Black ancestor they weren't aware of. This was due to the 18th Century Black populations across the country that had been 'absorbed' into the masses...
wLdWW TIL That a petard was a small bomb used in the sixteenth century to blow up walls. So being hoisted by his own petard means he was blown up by his own bomb.