› added 5 years ago

100

TIL about the ghost village Epecuén (Argentina) and it's sole inhabitant, Pablo Novak. The once touristic town became uninhabitable after a flood slowly consumed it in 1985. The waters began to recede in 2009 and Novak (now 90 years old) returned to the home of his youth to live alone with his dogs.

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6Ej7W TIL a man suffered a flash fire in his chest cavity during emergency heart surgery caused by supplemental oxygen leaking from a ruptured lung.
xVE15 TIL that Bill Millin, a soldier in WWII, walked onto Normandy Beach on D-Day without a gun and began playing the bagpipes. When ordered to do so beforehand, he had pointed out that it was against British regulations, and his commander told him "You and I are both Scottish, and that doesn’t apply".
d8pME TIL Dymphna, patron saint of mental illness, fled from her "mad king" father to Geel, Belgium. She founded an sanctuary for the mentally ill. After her death, the afflicted continued to flock to Geel. Citizens began boarding and caring for them in their homes, a tradition that continues today.
XdvR TIL there are only three species that go through menopause: humans, killer whales, and short finned pilot whales
jNyEQ TIL: When the Krakatoa volcano erupted in 1883, It was so powerful that it ruptured the eardrums of sailors 64 km (40 miles) away on ships in the Sunda Strait