› added 9 months ago

25

TIL that there is a debate on how many continents there are. The number varies from seven to four

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dDEQB TIL - Arthur Galston, botanist, focused on soybean research. He discovered a chemical which allowed soybeans to flower quicker, but with too much of this chemical it caused the flower to wilt. The U.S. military became highly interested in this aspect of the research, and Agent Orange was born...
5YjMQ TIL when Nathan’s Famous Hot Dogs first opened in 1916, the owner hired people to dress as doctors and eat hot dogs outside his shop, to convince people his hot dogs were healthy.
9Y1JD TIL that Scotland gained its Northern Isles from the Kalmar Union (the combined kingdoms of Norway, Sweden, and Denmark) since the king of the Kalmar Union's daughter was getting married to the king of Scotland but the king of the Kalmar Union never paid the dowry so Scotland annexed the islands.
6Y4l TIL: That Golden Retrievers are the closest descendants of the now extinct Russian Tracker, a breed reportedly so intelligent it kept flocks of sheep alive for months, with no human help.
xVOy7 TIL about Käthe Heusermann - assistant to Adolf Hitler's dentist. She was the reason the Soviet intelligence knew Hitler was dead for certain. She was imprisoned for 6 years in Moscow and sent to hard labour in Siberia for 4 years before being allowed to return to East Germany.