› added 7 years ago

155

TIL things about lettuce, naturally grown wild lettuce contains tropane alkaloids, the active ingredient in cocaine.

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BKLd TIL that during ‘Operation Focus’, the opening offensive airstrike of the 'Six-Day war’, the Israeli Air Force managed to destroy the entire Egyptian, Jordanian, and Syrian Air Forces in about 3 hours. Over 450 planes were destroyed, and 18 airfields were rendered unusable.
oBk0W TIL of the London Beer flood of 1814, where a 22 foot vat of Porter beer burst, flooding the streets and killing 8 people.
grB17 TIL that platypuses (platypi?) don't have nipples and secrete milk through their abdominal skin. Also there are no known pain relief medication that can treat platypus venom, since the venom affects unknown pain response pathways in humans
NY58 TIL that in 1893 geologist and explorer Major John Wesley Powell told the Los Angeles International Irrigation Congress, “Gentlemen, you are piling up a heritage of conflict and litigation over water rights, for there is not sufficient water to supply the land.” He was booed out of the hall.
wLrN6 TIL that during WW2 Japanese people were fully convinced that American soldiers were devils that 'devoured women and babies'; so they jumped off cliffs to kill themselves and avoid being captured.