› added 2 years ago

54

TIL the brightest star in the nighttime sky, Sirius, was important to both Egyptians and Polynesians, serving as a predictor of the Nile’s upcoming flood season and a key point for navigating the South Pacific islands

Read more beatlyzer.com

via beatlyzer.com

R78M1 TIL even though diamonds are the hardest material known to man, they can be smashed and shattered by a hammer because hardness only determines how scratch resistant something is, not how strong it is.
k5MB TIL The first Democrat governor of Wyoming wore a pair of shoes made of human skin to his inaugural ball.
KZm6 TIL that although lead paint was recognized as toxic as early as 1897 and banned by the League of Nations in 1922, the US did not ban lead paint until 1971.
JYDpl TIL A WWI soldier injured in France in 1917, went on to marry the nurse that mistook him for a German spy and advised surgeons to take his life on the operating table. He accidentally spoke German to doctors while under a fever, and she took it as spy language. They were married for over 50 years.
E1ROw TIL The Russian settlement of Shakhtyorsky was abolished due to it no longer being considered economically viable to continue mining in the area. The Russian government guaranteed funds to transport non-working pensioners and the unemployed in liquidated settlements to other parts of Russia