› added 6 months ago

20

TIL Citizen Kane did not win Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

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Rvw1 TIL that the largest galaxy in the observable universe is elliptical galaxy, IC 1101. It has 100 trillion stars and is 6 million light years across! By comparison, the Milky way has a mere 100 billion stars and is 120,000 light years across.
BrPor TIL in 2002, a Kenyan tribe sent the U.S. 14 cows to aid in the aftermath of 9/11. Cows are their livelihood and they sent every cow they could spare to help strangers overseas. It all started with Kimeli Naiyomah, a young member of a Masai tribe.
Y7VO7 TIL of mut'ah, a "marriage" contract lasting an hour that is practiced by Shia people which acts as a form of legal prostitution in Iraq, Iran, and other areas with notable Shia population
PYDlw TIL There were lots of sketchy criticality accidents during the Manhattan Project and other early nuclear weapons research. E.g. One scientist died after dropping a Tungsten Carbide brick onto a Plutonium sphere which reflected more neutrons back onto it increasing the radiation
9Y4Wm TIL about 'Wolfskinder' - orphaned German children during WW2 who fled the then East Prussia to Lithuania. They survived hunger, cold and loss of identity. It was estimated that upto 25000 kids were roaming the woods and swamps of these regions after 1945.