› added 5 months ago

18

TIL there was a deadlier martime disaster than the Titanic: the Sultana. Carrying 6 times the passengers than it was alotted, the Sultana sank on the Mississippi river killing over 1,100 Union Soldiers. The tragedy did not receive much attention as it was days after the assassination of Lincoln.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

9Y1xG TIL The US corn industry has mostly grown through increasing government support during the last century. In the process corn became so abundant and cheap that it enabled the existence of CAFOS, ethanol and HFCS production which in turn have profoundly affected the environment and human health.
Wko18 TIL that for years a man deliberately infected himself with tape worms to help treat his ulcerative colitis, a common bowel disease. Doctors found that after infection areas of his colon started producing mucos again which is key to healing and IL-22 a molecule that promotes epithelial growth.
4L46 TIL that Dr Catherine Hamlin and her husband answered an ad in 1958 for an obstetrician and gynaecologist to set up a midwifery school in Ethiopia. She still works there today at the age of 89. Happy International Women’s Day!
gM4db TIL Exxon Valdez spilled 11 million gallons into in Alaska. The oil slick killed 250,000 seabirds, 3,000 otters, 300 seals and 22 killer whales. The captain of the ship let unlicensed third mate to steer the ship to a well known hazard-Bligh Reef.
grVd8 TIL early test audiences saw a version in which E.T. died on American soil & those people hated it so vehemently that the studio insisted E.T. live, so the final cut shows E.T. leaving for home. Audiences cried "happy tears" & made the film the 4th highest-grossing ever when adjusted for inflation.