› added 4 years ago

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TIL in 1998 the Vietnam Unknown remains were removed from the Arlington Tomb of the Unknown Soldier after the serviceman's identity became known through DNA testing.

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JgA8 TIL that 1955, a thunderstorm in Belgium set off 40 000 pounds of buried explosives left over from the WW1 battle of Messines. Luckily, the only casualty was a single cow.
NXbJP TIL The Universe has an average colour – and it’s called cosmic latte
7Ggr TIL that Christopher Columbus, on the way to the New World, was stranded in Jamaica in 1503 A.D. Knowing that he was wearing out his welcome with the natives and that a lunar eclipse was near, Columbus warned the natives that moon would vanish if they did not continue to feed him and his sailors.
R7Vbl TIL that after Beethoven went deaf, he found he could affix a metal rod to his piano and bite down on it while he played, enabling him to hear perfectly through vibrations in his jawbone. The process is called bone conduction.
QN9MX TIL some heraldry depict an animal penis called pizzle, and the omission of it was seen as a grave insult. In 1579 the pizzle in the coat of arms of Appenzell in Switzerland was forgotten by a calendar printer of St. Gallen, which brought the two regions to the brink of war.