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TIL Pau Brasil is the national tree of Brazil. A dye taken from the tree’s heartwood has been exploited by collectors since 1501. It also provides immensely valuable, almost indestructible timber used to manufacture bows for stringed instruments, for construction, to make traditional hunting tools.

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PY5YG TIL Over the Shinkansen's (Japan's Highspeed Rail) 50-plus year history, carrying over 5.3 billion passengers, there has been not a single passenger fatality or injury due to train accidents.
oRvVY TIL that the US military controls 22.4% of all the land in O'ahu, Hawaii (85,718 acres out of 382,148 acres)
RGx9 TIL Two US Soldiers were killed by North Korea, while trying to trim down a tree that obscured their view. 3 days later, a task force of 813 troops entered Korea and chopped it down.
gr7k9 TIL that a Brazilian priest, as part of a fundraiser, sat in a chair tied to 1,000 balloons and sent himself up. He reached a height almost twice as high as he expected. Two weeks later he was found dead in the ocean.
grj1D TIL that Matt Damon didn’t just make a surprise appearance in EuroTrip (2004) —he actually played "Donny" the band's leader, and sang the song "Scotty Doesn’t Know," which became a cult hit.