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TIL that the Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de León was killed after being struck by an arrow poisoned with manchineel sap. A present-day Spanish name is manzanilla de la muerte, "little apple of death". This refers to the fact that manchineel is one of the most toxic trees in the world.

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e04Z5 TIL of “The Petition of the Sharks of Africa.” An 18th Century satirical letter written to the British Parliament asking them NOT to abolish slave trading. The “sharks” were angry that slave ships would no longer sink and asked for mercy so loyal shark subjects wouldn’t starve.
6m9w TIL that the Russian fighter jet, Su-34, comes equipped with a toilet and a kitchen.
yQBbV TIL about Sister Mary Kenneth Keller, a nun who is one of the two people to first receive a doctorate in computer science and helped invent BASIC
xl5D TIL in 1989, the forward cargo door of a 747 flying from Honolulu to Auckland blew off, causing decompression of the cabin and ejecting 9 passengers from the plane to their deaths over 22,000ft below. 2 flight attendants narrowly avoided being sucked out of the plane.
wLoJ6 TIL the yellow cab of NYC were started in 1907 when a businessman, outraged at being charged $5 dollars ($122 today) for a 1/4 mile horse and carriage trip, decided to start his own taxi "service in New York and charge so-much per mile