› added 1 year ago

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TIL that during the state opening of parliament in 1845, the Duke of Argyll accidentally dropped the Imperial State Crown, causing £150 (23,000$ today) worth of damage. Of the accident, Queen Victoria wrote in her diary:" [The Crown] was all crushed and squashed, like a pudding that had set down."

e0RO4 TIL the Netherlands is a leader when it comes to food production due to innovations in agricultural techniques which drastically improve efficiency. Growing a kg of tomatoes in the Netherlands uses 9.1L of water (1.1 gallon/lb). The global average is over 210L of water per kg (25.6 gallon/lb)
4XX9X TIL if caught with a Plastic bag in Kenya you could be fined $40000/imprisoned for 4 years
xWj0 TIL that when President Roosevelt visited The Pentagon in 1945 before its dedication he ordered them to remove the whites only signes and therefore making The Pentagon the only building in Virginia were segregation laws were not enforced until 1965.
9wxeD TIL about the Gnomes of Wrocław. In the 1980s people in the Polish city began painting gnomes over Soviet propaganda. After the fall of the USSR, a sculptor was hired to place gnomes around the city to honor their history. Others joined in and now there are over 400 gnomes and an annual parade.
WBXN TIL Johnny Cash nearly destroyed an entire species. When Johnny Cash’s truck overheated and went up in flames, he decided to step aside instead of call for help. As a result, a square mile of the forest was burned and 50% of the California Condors bird species were killed. He was fined $82,000