› added 9 months ago

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TIL at the Battle of Red Cliffs in 208 AD, Chinese General Cao Cao captured the naval port of Jiangling and seized a river fleet. He lashed his boats together into clusters to stabilize them for queasy troops. Enemy troops lit their own boats on fire and sent them at the fleet, burning them all down

kyd4 TIL that the last time someone was killed by a spider in australia was in 2016, the second last time was in 1979, a total of 37 years. this was due to an anti-venom being made in 1980 for funnel web spiders.
MwBB TIL that the entirety of the world’s population(6.7 billion in 2011) would be able to fit into a city the size of Texas if the population density was the same as New York.
QNMX9 TIL that a politician from the United Kingdom, John Bell, believed that he was a bird, stating that he could fly much better than a bird, because he kept his shoulders oiled. Despite his state of mind, he remained a Member of Parliament until his death in 1851.
788DX TIL In 1974 at a Canadian army training base in Quebec, cadets were being trained to handle discarded explosives. A cadet asked one of the instructors if he could pull the pin on the grenade, and the instructor told him it was safe. It exploded, killing 6 cadets and injuring 65 others.
D1Zej TIL most polar bears are twins. And while they are the largest land carnivore, newborn cubs are only about 10 inches (25 cm) long, and weigh about 2.2 pounds (1kg). They grow rapidly because the mother's milk is 31% fat.