› added 4 years ago

956

TIL that the Philippines' actual independence was also July 4, but in 1962 it was changed to June 12, likely to spite the US.

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wLNV7 TIL in June 1942, LBJ was supposed to be an observer on the Wabash Cannonball, a B-26 bomber in the South Pacific. Before takeoff, LBJ left the plane to relieve himself. By the time he returned, his seat was taken, so he couldn't get back on. The Wabash wound up crashing, killing everyone on board.
8aZkZ TIL staghorn ferns exhibit behaviors which are similar to ant and bee colonies (e.g. division of labor and cooperative survival). This phenomenon, known as eusociality, marks a major evolutionary transition for complex lifeforms and has previously only been observed in animals and insects.
0wB71 TIL That Punxsutawney Phil (the season predicting groundhog) is allegedly immortal from drinking the secret “elixir of life”, at the groundhog picnic each year. His wife, Phyllis does not receive the elixir and is not immortal
e0eJk TIL: In 1975 a 50 year old bricklayer died laughing whilst watching an episode of the TV show, The Goodies. His widow wrote to the cast of the show to thank them for making her husband's final moments so pleasant.
KONx6 TIL of Pearl S. Buck (赛珍珠 - Sai Zhenzhu), Author and Activist that was the First American Woman to win the Nobel Prize for Literature and escaped death in the Nanking Incident of 1927