› added 3 years ago

101

TIL of a theory that suggests that the earliest Old World contact with the Americas was not with Columbus or Norse settlers, but with the Phoenicians in the first millennium BC

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via reddit.com

VMpLD TIL most avocados are descended from one tree grown by a Milwaukee postman in 1926
VM0yG TIL, The unsinkable HMS Titanic was on fire before it left port. The iceberg it struck whilst at sea was only part of the reason it sank, as the fire had already weakened the ships structural integrity.
v0YR TIL Russia’s toughest prison uses Caucasian Mountain Shepard as guard dogs. They weigh up to 200lbs, stand 6ft tall and are said to have the stopping power of a .45 Caliber Gun.
b9KbZ TIL that Hollywood tough guy Charles Bronson actually was an aerial gunner which conducted combat missions against the Japanese home islands. He flew 25 missions and received a Purple Heart for wounds received in battle.
yVQXM TIL that in the summer of 2017, Mike Meyers hosted 10 episodes of The Gong Show in full makeup as a character named Tommy Maitland - the show's emcee. It wasn't revealed that it was him until the following January.