› added 9 years ago

77

TIL not a single cactus grows in the Sahara, as cacti are native only to the Americas.

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neWPY TIL that the Italian painter Raphael was often accompanied by fifty scholars daily; when Michangelo greeted him one day, he said "You walk surrounded by an entourage like a general," and Raphael responded, "And you, you walk alone like an executioner."
PBlG Today I learned that while some have been destroyed through friendly fire, not one M1A1 Abrams tank has ever been destroyed in combat by enemy fire.
16xwV TIL that on 11 May 1910, 260 children were left fatherless and 85 women widowed as a result of the Wellington Pit Explosion in Whitehaven, Cumbria.
9Y6Am TIL that blanks in a gun can kill. Jon-Erik Hexum was an actor who accidentally killed himself with a blank gun. Later his transplanted heart saved the life of a Las Vegas pimp.
grmkX TIL a bear was the first living being to survive a supersonic ejection