› added 9 months ago

75

TIL that more than three billion people rely on the ocean to make a living

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G9d5 TIL That Dr.Jonas Salk, the man who came up with the cure for polio, didn’t patent the drug. This made the drug more affordable to the general public, and he lost out an an estimated $7 billion dollars for himself.
x6vJo TIL of the Holy Prepuce, a series of relics claiming to be Jesus's foreskin. At certain points in history, as many as 18 different supposed holy foreskins existed
jNBBE TIL that in the War of the Triple Alliance, Paraguay lost over 90% of it's entire male population. Paraguayan women ended up outnumbering men with ratios of 4:1 or even 20:1 in some regions. As a result, the local catholic church authorized polygamy to rebuild the population
0wdwj TIL In the skies over Germany in WWII, a badly damaged American B-17 was escorted out of enemy airspace by a German fighter ace who could've easily shot them down. Years later after the war, Charlie Brown and Franz Stigler reunited and became lifelong friends.
DQdJe TIL the greatest peacetime maritime disaster is the sinking of MV Doña Paz in 1987 with 4386 dead, almost 3 times Titanic's casualties (1496). The greatest wartime disaster is Wilhelm Gustloff in 1945 (9343 dead).