› added 4 months ago

19

TIL Charles Darwin's tortoise lived to be 175, and was owned By Steve Irwin when she died - two and a half months before Irwin's own tragic death

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

pY5MQ TIL: New York had a secret CIA base disguised as a ‘different Federal institution’. It was in the World Trade Centre tower 7 that fell on 9/11
e0xWb TIL about Pavlik Morozov: a Ukrainian boy who was indoctrinated by the Young Pioneers, turned his parents in to the police for hiding grain, and actively participated in their assassination. He was then killed by his grandfather for betraying his family. Pavlik was celebrated as a martyr by Soviets.
88Zb TIL that 64,000+ Americans were forcibly sterilized during the 20th century, to promote “superior genetics”. Backers included Kellogg, the Rockefeller Foundation, and Carnegie Institution. The Nazi’s were partially inspired by Americans
ROZ8 TIL that when the body of a dead whale (or other large cetacean) falls to below 1'000m/3'000ft, it can form a “whale fall”: a localized ecosystem that supplies sustenance to deep-sea organisms. Creatures can use the carcass as a home, living off of it for decades.
grdNL TIL “Girls Just Wanna Have Fun” by Cyndi Lauper is a cover song, and the OG was sung by a man named Robert Hazard