› added 4 years ago

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TIL that American surgeon William Beaumont, the "Father of Gastric Physiology", researched human digestion by putting pieces of food on a string and poking them through an old gunshot wound in his handyman's stomach. He pulled it out on regular intervals to check on how well it had been digested.

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NXXe1 TIL that the last battle of the thirty years war was fought at Prague where the war started thirty years earlier during the bohemian revolt. Swedish forces took parts of the city including Prague castle and looted it for months before being repelled by bohemian forces.
vlWL TIL Charles Francis Feeney, a retail magnate & former billionaire, went from being worth $6.3 billion to $1.5 million after donating 99.9% of his wealth to charity.
OGy5g TIL that because of the US Airways aircraft incident on the Hudson River (portrayed in the movie "Sully") 70,000 Canada geese have been intentionally killed in 17 different locations around New York City to prevent further complications with flights.
k7a7 TIL in 1992 an inflatable bouncy castle took flight with 5 children inside. To save them, a 21 year-old man grabbed one of the trailing ropes, climbed up to the castle 15 metres in the air and pulled each child out, before losing his grip and falling through the canvas roof of a dodgems tent.
mKxv TIL that El Al airlines is considered one of the most secure airlines; they equip their planes with anti-missile defense systems and there is an undercover air marshal on every international flight.