› added 7 years ago

88

TIL the dutch explorer Abel Tasman discovered Tasmania and New Zealand on his first pacific voyage while missing the entire continent of Australia.

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QN76X TIL that 8% of our DNA comes from remnants of ancient viruses. And an additional 40% is made up of repetitive strings of DNA that's also thought to have viral origins. Almost half our DNA didn't come from us.
vPedj TIL that the British colonizers set about defining 2,378 castes belonging to 43 “races,” by measuring the noses. They called it the "nasal index"
kJn05 TIL a pickle is a cucumber
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N7KQ8 TIL almost a third of the American soldiers at Valley Forge spoke English as a second language