› added 6 years ago

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TIL That Hans Steininger, a 16th century German Mayor of a small town, died by tripping on his beard. It was over 4 and a ½ feet long and he usually kept it tucked away in a pocket, but during a town fire he forgot to put it in and tripped on in it in the chaos, breaking his neck.

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8p0L TIL that a there is a traditional British army drink called gunfire made of black tea and rum. Officers serve it to lower ranks on Christmas. During the Korean war, British soldiers once gave gunfire to some American MPs, causing them to drive an ARV and some Jeeps into a fence.
1Ko8 TIL H. L. Mencken when writing about the US Presidency predicted that “On some great and glorious day the plain folks of the land will reach their heart’s desire at last, and the White House will be adorned by a downright moron.”
p866G TIL Dolphins come in just behind humans in brainpower - can demonstrate skills and awareness previously thought to be present only in humans.
KYNW6 TIL The only known naturally occuring nuclear fission reactor was discovered in Oklo, Gabon and is thought to have been active 1.7 billion years ago. This discovery in 1972 was made after chemists noticed a significant reduction in fissionable U-235 within the ore coming from the Gabonese mine.
vP6E8 TIL when guitarist Carlos Santana heard the song “Rumbalero” by his son, Salvador, he had to Shazam it to find out it was his own son's music as he didn’t recognize it. Carlos then requested permission from his son to re-record the song for his 2021 album and his son thought he was kidding at first.