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TIL that the "Founder of Modern Egypt" was actually an Albanian by the name of Mohammad Ali, and he ruled over Egypt, Sudan, The Levant, Mecca, and Medina at the peak of his power within the Ottoman Empire.

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w6GW TIL that Europeans did not know anything about potatoes, tomatoes, chili peppers, chocolate, corn, peanuts and vanilla until the “discovery” of the Americas.
9KkD TIL that one of the world’s lightest solids, aerogel was created as the result of a bet between two scientists to see who could remove the liquid from jellies without shrinkage.
4XEj5 TIL in 1962 the US detonated a nuke, Starfish Prime, in space to clear out Van Allen belt radiation (making Apollo missions safer) and for research. It took out part of Hawaii's electrical grid, several satellites, and made the Van Allen radiation much worse. A planned further test was cancelled.
ojyR TIL of the “Theatrum Orbis Terrarum”, a sixteenth century medieval atlas with artistic hand drawn eyewitness maps of major world cities. Organized and compiled in the year 1570, it utilized the talent and works of several cartographers. The first traditional “world atlas”, it contains 53 maps.
0wo7R TIL during world War II, the army would pour ice cold water in the ear of "draft dodgers" who pretended to be deaf. The normal response is to turn the eyes to the ear with cold water (Caloric reflex. About half of deaf lack this reflex). No response = truly deaf. Response = Possible draft dodger.