An industrial accident in Boston caused a massive tidal wave of molasses to descend upon an unsuspecting neighborhood, killing 21 people and injuring 150 more. This actually happened.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Molasses_Flood
The absolutely bonkers story of Tarrare, a deranged Frenchman who could not stop eating anything and everything he could get his hands on. Garbage, cats, people, more garbage. This remorseless eating machine could not be stopped.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tarrare
Thanks to some beneficial corporate tax laws in the state, one forgettably single story building in Delaware is the legal home to nearly ever large US company you've ever heard of....in fact, over 285,000 businesses call this little shabby office home.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Corporation_Trust_Center_(CT_Corporation)
There Is one unidentified whale who has been singing a song and trying to communicate for 31 years In a frequency that only he/she can understand. This Is the story of the Loneliest Whale In the World.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/52-hertz_whale
In the 1960s, FDA scientist Dr. Frances Kelsey refused to approve the sleep-aid medicine Thalidomide, because clinical trials had not proved to her that it was safe for pregnant women to take. Soon, the world would see that thousand of babies were born missing limbs because of this dangerous drug.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Frances_Oldham_Kelsey
United States Navy Petty Officer 2nd Class Douglas Hegdahl is captured by the Vietnamese, but pretends to be an absolute idiot and ends up outsmarting his captors, all the while memorizing hundreds of POWs information to the tune of "Old McDonald Had a Farm".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Doug_Hegdahl
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Tech giants like Google and Apple have taken advantage of an offshore corporate tax loophole that passes money from the USA to Bermuda to Ireland to the Netherlands and back to the Bermuda. The Double Irish with a Dutch Sandwich.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Double_Irish_arrangement
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The Tulsa race massacre of 1921 took place on May 31 and June 1, 1921, when mobs of white residents attacked black residents and businesses of the Greenwood District in Tulsa, Oklahoma. The attacks ranged from shootings to lynchings to beatings and even to dropping incendiary bombs from biplanes. It has been called "the single worst incident of racial violence in American history."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tulsa_race_massacre
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The super annoying test you have to take when creating a new account, where you have to spell out the crazy letters or numbers In order to prove you're a human, has a fascinating history In not only thwarting spammers, but helping digitize all written language, all the while feeding the machine hivemind endless information.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CAPTCHA
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A thin metal wire, called an "eruv", is strung up and run around nearly the entirety of the island of Manhattan as a loophole to Jewish law to allow its robust Orthodox population to work on the Sabbath. Its been there for nearly 100 years and I bet you had no idea.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eruv
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