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TIL The word "canvas" is derived from the word cannabis. Hemp, a variety of the cannabis, was commonly used to make sail canvas.

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kZAW TIL Tree roots from different trees can physically fuse together; “like connecting [the] blood vessels of two different people. One tree gives the other tree a permanent transfusion.”
epNVg TIL that Winston Churchill’s famous “Iron Curtain” speech was given at a college in rural Missouri with about 600 students. The college later purchased a ruined historic church from London, transported it stone by stone, rebuilt it and turned part of it into a Churchill museum.
J8nv TIL that the 2010 San Bruno Pipeline Explosion created a reported 1000 foot tall wall of flames and a 1.1 Earthquake. It destroyed 38 homes, killing 8 people including 44 year old Jacqueline Greig. She worked at the California Public Utilities Commission trying to replace outdated gas lines.
KONdB TIL Allvar Gullstrand applied the methods of physical mathematics to the study of optical images and refraction of light in the eye and received the Nobel Prize in Medicine in 1911. Due to the math in his works, it is lamented there are few ophthalmologists and physiologists who can understand it
ANObl TIL Chicory has been a historic substitute for coffee. Frederick the Great banned coffee in Prussia which led to the mass production of chicory by 1795 and the chicory drinks were common in Napoleonic France. Chicory drinks also became popular in Confederate states because of the Union blockade.