› added 12 years ago

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TIL: Superman used to be able to project a mini version of himself that had all of his super powers. Eventually he became jealous of it and tried to kill it but it ended up sacrificing itself to save him.

W7NVo TIL that Elysia marginata sea slugs steal chloroplasts from the algae they eat in order to photosynthesize, and can regrow their entire leaf-shaped bodies after decapitation.
wLNyW TIL that Omar Bongo was the President of Gabon for 42 years, from 1967 until his death in 2009. After Cuban President Fidel Castro stepped down in February 2008, Bongo became the world's longest-ruling non-royal leader. He was one of the longest-serving non-royal rulers since 1900.
x6AXg TIL: During his opening of Japan to the America's through a show of force, Matthew C. Perry, during the signing event, followed the kabuki play with US military band music... and a blackface minstrelsy. He got $20,000 at the time for his work in Japan.
Wm08 TIL in 1961, Fidel Castro closed Cuban schools for a whole year and formed teachers into a “literacy army” with the goal to eradicate illiteracy. By the end of the year, 707,212 previously illiterate people had learned how to read.
Oo10X TIL that preacher Elvy E. Callaway claimed the Garden of Eden was in Bristol, Florida. He reasoned that it is one of only two places in the world where a river "splits into four "(Genesis 2:10). The only other place with this description is a river in Siberia, which is obviously too cold for Eden.