› added 6 years ago

142

TIL Tyrian purple used to be worth it's weight in gold, and it took 250,000 snails to make one ounce of dye.

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ZpwkY TIL about the Toshka Project, which consists in the creation of a second Nile valley thanks to water from the Nasser Lake to increase the share of inhabited land of Egypt from 5% to 25%
LQoWr TIL the Sixth Crusade was mostly conducted through diplomacy and involved very little actual fighting. Jerusalem was ceded to the Crusaders through Treaty of Jaffa (1229). The reaction to the treaty in both the Christian and Muslim worlds was largely negative.
b9lYN TIL Comic Sans is based on the lettering in Watchmen
E1PjV TIL a woman named Hien Tran was laying in intensive care after a car accident and investigators were searching for clues due to apparent stab wounds in her neck. A week after she died, a letter arrived from Honda urging her to get her red Accord fixed, because of faulty airbags that could explode
47g6 TIL that the infamous “chestburster” scene in “Alien” was inspired by a screenwriter’s struggle with Crohn’s disease, a inflammatory bowel disease that made him feel like something was trying to punch its way out of his chest.