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TIL the USSR promoted a pseudoscientific form of agriculture that rejected genetic heritability for political reasons. Up to 3000 scientists critical of Lysenkoism were imprisoned or killed for being “bourgeois”, fascist or anti-Marxist saboteurs

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oRNy8 TIL During World War I, the Germans bombed New York City by setting off explosives at an munitions plant killing 3 people and permanently damaging the torch on the Statue of Liberty. It helped draw the USA into World War I similar to the Pearl Harbor attack during World War II.
Mxa8 TIL that according to the Democracy Index (created by a business within the Economist Group), only 25 countries are full democracies. 53 are flawed democracies, 36 are hybrids and 53 are authoritarian.
Ooobg TIL Bracken Cave (Texas) has the largest bat colony on Earth. The bats are a great benefit to cotton farmers in the region.
V1ZZ TIL that in June 2012, the U.S. town of Boring, Oregon accepted the proposal of Dull, Scotland to “pair” their municipalities, in an effort to promote tourism in both places as a play on their names
ADYmd TIL: Earthworms have even been ranked the number one most influential species in the history of the planet – above dinosaurs and humans.