› added 11 years ago

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TIL while trying to eclipse the Eiffel Tower for the 1893 Chicago World’s Fair, an inventor named J. B. McComber proposed a 8,947 foot tower which would have rails extending from the top, leading all the way to New York City, Baltimore, and Boston, on which fair-goers could toboggan all the way home

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de5Q TIL that the Nation of Islam is linked to Scientology, they encourage the use of Dianetics and even have auditors
9wNNX TIL about the first black NYPD officer Sam Battle, who rose through the ranks to be a Sergeant then Lieutenant then Parole Commissioner despite institutional racism and even death threats, and also held the record of the largest baby born in North Carolina...at 16 pounds.
loOEA TIL of "Dreadnoughtus", one of the largest dinosaurs that ever existed. The fossil skeleton of the individual was 85ft/26m, but was not even a full grown adult and expected to grown even larger!
5VJVD TIL the Seinfeld episode The Implant popularised the term "double dipping", George gets in a fist-fight over the act
lxa TIL Hugh Heffner advocated for gay rights in the 1950’s