› added 1 year ago

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TIL Guantanamo bay military base is leased from Cuba for $4085/month, except Cuba refuses to cash the checks. The only time a check was cashed was an accident, as they consider it stolen land.

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X00EX TIL Roger Bacon who lived from around 1214 to 1292. In his Epistola de Secretis Operibus, he wrote: “Cars can be made so that without animals they will move with unbelievable rapidity,” and “flying machines can be constructed by which artificial wings are made to beat the air like a flying bird.”
XE4yE TIL Due to China’s early discovery and love of ceramics they didn’t produce any glass between the 14th-19th century. This meant they didn’t have mirrors and windows etc, leaving them behind in sciences, as they didn’t make lenses and other things fundamental to science.
5VwPD TIL that Robert Hooke has been called “England’s Leonardo.” He discovered microorganisms and a law of elasticity; observed the rotation of planets; revolutionized city planning; and presaged theories of optics, gravity, and evolution.
4kgPX TIL cormorant and pelican guano harvested from islands off the coast of Peru and Chile was used in the Inca highlands to boost agricultural output. The Inca created what the first known animal conservation scheme to safeguard the birds' breeding grounds with violations punishable by death
0Qrp TIL upon landing in England, William the Conqueror slipped and fell; to play it cool he grasped two fistfuls of soil and proclaimed ‘England is ours!’