› added 7 years ago

90

TIL A Japanese farmer discovered a gold seal while repairing an irrigation ditch in 1784. The seal turned out to be 95% pure gold and was a gift from the Chinese Emperor to a Japanese envoy from 54 CE, the earliest recorded date of contact between the two countries.

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19xD TIL in 1996, Pfizer may have killed 50 kids in Nigeria while improperly testing experimental anti-meningitis drugs
rNWoy TIL Enthusiasm was originally used to refer to someone possessed by God and Socrates taught that the inspiration of poets was a form of enthusiasm
YZXG TIL the first proposal to tunnel under the English Channel was put forward by a Frenchman in 1802. It would have had illumination from oil lamps, horse-drawn coaches, and an artificial island mid-Channel for changing horses
oRZM8 TIL: Bananas are slightly radioactive and truckloads of them can cause false alarms at radiation portal monitors (the things that detect nuclear material at the ports)
eJQ6 TIL The film version of George Orwell’s book Animal Farm was secretly funded by the CIA.