› added 6 years ago

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TIL that "On May 5, 1971, Scottie Dunning discovered a tiny male harbor seal pup on the shore of Cundy’s Harbor, Maine." After living in captivity, the seal pup now named Hoover "began to utter phrases such as: “Hello, there!” and “Come Over Here!” in a thick New England accent"

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W7NeA TIL Apollo 13 astronaut Fred Haise would've have walked on the Moon as commander of Apollo 19 before budget cuts cancelled that flight
8aOoK TIL that in the US, extreme heat kills more people than all other weather related events.
698yY TIL Champ Clark, Speaker of the House of Representatives, once suggested that the US-Canadian reciprocity treaty of 1911 would lead to the annexation of Canada to the US. This helped lead to the defeat of the Laurier government, which negotiated the treaty with the US.
Va7Q TIL that the chemical that makes chili peppers hot induces pain in mammals, who would chew the seeds and destroy them, but has no effect on birds, who swallow the seeds whole and poop them out, serving to disperse them.
nemDW TIL of the 1995 Bojinka plot: a plan to assassinate the pope, bomb 11 US-Asia airliners, and fly a plane into the CIA headquarters. It was foiled after an accidental fire drew suspicion from Filipino police. It was financed by Bin Laden and 9/11 is considered to be a 2nd attempt at a similar attack.