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TIL that iron smelting was independently discovered in West Africa by 1000 BCE

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mxkMO TIL that the carriage Dorothy rides in in the Wizard of Oz was once owned by Abraham Lincoln.
4VBN TIL, Ancient Greeks and Romans used asbestos to make fire retardant materials so they could be cleaned by throwing them into the fire. Pliny the Elder noted that people who had contact with asbestos-containing materials acquired “sickness of the lungs.”
kWEd TIL In 1914, British WWI soldier Thomas Hughes tossed a beer bottle with a letter to his wife into the English Channel. He was killed two days later. In 1999, a fisherman dredged up the bottle in the River Thames. Although Hughes’ wife had died in 1979, it was delivered to his 86-year old daughter.
Y5L7 TIL killer whales that prey on other mammals enter ‘stealth mode’ when hunting, not making any sounds until the prey has been caught. Killer whales that prey on fish, however, continue to make noise at all points in their hunting since fish can’t hear the frequencies they use
XE1NQ TIL the production of Def Leppard's album "Hysteria" was so expensive that guitarist Phil Collen estimated they needed to sell around 5 million copies to break even. They ended up selling 25 million.