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TIL That the first sci-fi story was arguably written in 2nd century Rome--it included space travel via a flying ship, battles between alien armies, and visiting various civilizations throughout the galaxy

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ep5e5 TIL in 1870, Italy completed its unification by defeating the Papal States, which contained Rome. Though his army was outnumbered, the Pope insisted on symbolic resistance before surrendering, resulting in ~68 deaths. Rome was captured, and the Pope’s territory was eventually reduced to Vatican City
epN7n TIL Giovanni Battista Grassi ingested roundworm eggs in 1879 to solve the century-old puzzle of how infection of roundworm is transmitted from host to host. Eventually, he found fresh eggs in his feces. Thus proving that the roundworm is transmitted through direct ingestion of a contaminated source.
nWDbo TIL that all diseases known as transmissible spongiform encephalopathy, such as Creutzfeldt–Jakob and fatal insomnia, have a perfect 100% mortality rate. There are no cases of survival and these diseases are invariably fatal.
NAAN TIL that in 2004, Lego changed the color of their grey bricks from brey (higher red content) to bley (higher blue content) in order to appear ‘newer’ in comparison to Megabloks
7rv6X TIL about sakotis, a Lithuanian tree-shaped cake made by continuously pouring layers of batter onto a rotating cylinder. A 2 kilo cake uses 30 eggs, but the largest one ever made was 2 meters tall and used 1200 eggs!