› added 8 years ago

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TIL Trajan was the first and only Roman emperor to set foot on the shores of the Persian Gulf.

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nebN9 TIL The US Navy has a Spec Ops team, MK6, comprised of Dolphins and Sea Lions. They're trained to detect enemy divers, attach a device onto their air tank that explodes and alerts personnel of their location.
kJPoW TIL that trains have sandboxes which dispense sand immediately in front of the drive wheels to give the locomotive traction on steep or slippery rails.
16XdD TIL that the inventor of the toilet paper roll, Seth Wheeler, illustrated the patent with the roll in the “over” position, fueling the ongoing debate about the correct way to hang toilet paper.
gr999 TIL that the 'brotherly love' in the etymology of the name Philadelphia refers to literal incest, when Ptolemy II married his sister Arsinoe II they both took/were given the name Philadelphos, or 'sibling-lover'.
awnmZ TIL actor Bill Skarsgård (Pennywise in “It”) stayed in character so authentically while on set that when a group of (kid) extras met him for the first time, some got terrified and started to cry in the midst of the take. When filming cut, Skarsgård apologized to them, “Hey, I’m sorry, it’s pretend”.