TIL that Winston Churchill smoked 8 to 10 cigars a day from the age of 21 until his death at 90. He picked up the habit, which he believed steadied his nerves, while in Cuba for a few months in 1895, and stayed loyal to two Cuban brands, Romeo y Julieta and La Aroma de Cuba, to the end of his life.

biography.com/political-figure…
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How Winston Churchill’s Cigar Habit Defined Him

The Prime Minister was rarely spotted without his favorite accessory — a cigar.

^Biography

TIL Australian light switches turn on by pushing the button down, which is the opposite of the US and Canada.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Light_sw…
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TIL: Button cell battery names are actually codes include the chemistry, shape, diameter and thickness. e,g, CR2032 is C lithium, R round, 20mm diamter, 3.2mm thick

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Button_c…
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TIL that fava beans can cause your red blood cells to self destruct (haemolytic anemia) if you have an inherited G6PD enzyme deficiency (aka Favism).

sfa.gov.sg/food-safety-tips/fo…
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TIL it's illegal to sell permanent markers in NYC to minors under 18, to prevent vandalism.

nyc.gov/html/nograffiti/html/l…
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TIL that in 2018 scientists discovered a new way to cause depression in rats: Put them with other depressed rats. By housing a healthy rat with two depressed rats for five weeks, the healthy rat will reliably become depressed.

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/…
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TIL about Malik Ambar, an Ethiopian slave brought to medieval India at the age of 12, who then freed himself, formed a mercenary army of over 50,000 men, pioneered guerrilla warfare, and became leader of a kingdom/sultanate for 26 years

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malik_Am…
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TIL Roman ruins excavations led to a cat sanctuary

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Torre_Ar…
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TIL Philadelphia Cream Cheese is produced in New York, and always has been since it was invented by William Lawrence in 1872. He named his company Philadelphia to market off of the city's reputation for high quality dairy products.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Philadel…
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hmmm, must have been because of the "new Math." But wow.
Post from @todayilearned, TIL that in the 1980s, A&W launched their third-pounder burger to compete with the quarter-pounder. Confused about low sales, they conducted a study and found that around half the participants thought a third was smaller than a quarter. The burger was rebranded to the "papa burger."

https://culinarylore.com/food-history:aw-1-3-pound-burger-failure-fact-check-are-americans-really…
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reddit.com/r/todayilearned/com… Sunday, July 14, 2024 2:6:3. Public.

TIL that the reason that Mr. Rogers told viewer that he was feeding his fish as he was doing so was because a five-year-old fan who is blind was concerned that he wasn't, so he wanted to put her mind at ease.

misterrogers.org/articles/the-…
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TIL that in 1990, on flight BA 5390, a poorly installed windshield blew off, partially sucking the captain out of the plane. The crew managed to hold onto him until they landed, and amazingly, he survived.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/British_…
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