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TIL that the parachute was invented before the airplane

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NXdgb TIL that in 546 BCE Argos and Sparta had an all-star "Battle of the 300 Champions," where both sides picked their best hoplites and agreed to fight to the death. The two surviving Argives thought they'd won and left, leaving behind a single injured Spartan on the field. He also claimed victory.
ZpYPY TIL about uranium glassware, where small samples of uranium were melted into glass before forming to create a wider range of colors. This practice stopped in the 40s and pieces now are highly sought by collectors.
9my6 TIL Szechuan peppers cause numbness when eaten because they contain hydroxy-alpha-sanshool, a molecule that binds to cells’ tactile receptors to chemically simulate the same sensation as being vibrated at 50 hertz.
XEKgQ TIL biologists found that some dolphins in the Gulf of Mexico decapitate catfish before eating them in order to avoid injury from the catfish skull spines. Biologists studied a sampling of a half-kilometer trail of severed catfish heads bobbing in the wake of a dolphin pod.
oReKR TIL Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin's final task on the moon was to leave a small package of memorial items to Soviet cosmonauts Yuri Gagarin and Vladimir Komarov, and Apollo 1 astronauts Grissom, White and Chaffee.