› added 4 years ago

100

TIL Christopher Columbus' efforts to obtain support for his voyages were hampered not by belief in a flat Earth but by valid worries that the East Indies were farther than he realized. In fact, Columbus grossly underestimated the Earth's circumference and caused he and his crew's near starvation.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

aLLA TIL the metabolic rate of a dormant scorpion can be lower than that of a root vegetable like a carrot or beet.
wLBb8 TIL there is a long lost tunnel beneath Atlantic Avenue in NYC, that may contain an 18th century locomotive which is reported to be the hiding place of John Wilks Booth's lost diary. A man found the tunnel in 1980, but it was resealed by the city before he could finish searching for the train.
NXvxQ TIL about Doggerland, which was an area in northern Europe once home to fertile lands and hunter-gatherers, and is now submerged beneath the North Sea due to rising sea levels and a tsunami
nWjk9 TIL that in 1943, Rosa Parks boarded a bus being driven by James F. Blake when the latter told Parks to disembark and re-enter from the back. When Parks got off the bus, Blake sped off. 12 years later, Parks would famously defy Blake, thereby prompting the Montgomery bus boycott.
nWyg7 TIL Spicy “flavor” is not a taste, but rather a reaction to the chemicals in your mouth. This is why some hot sauces can have a bad taste, since taste has nothing to do with spiciness.