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TIL in the Battle of the Big Hole, Montana in 1877, Nez Perce Indians captured a howitzer from the United States Army, but dismantled it

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a8d00 TIL about the US Camel Corps, an experiment to introduce camels as pack animals in the SW.
Y7ZeP TIL That the most polluted place on the planet is Lake Karachay, located near the Ural Mountains in Russia. In 1990, standing on the shore for 1 hour would give you a lethal radiation dose of 600 roentgen, more than enough to kill you.
N9xe TIL that JRR Tolkien never said that hobbits have disproportionately large feet. They were an invention of illustrators that were copied in many other adaptations and derivative works.
p8n0e TIL about alkaline hydrolysis, an alternative cremation method where the body is placed in a pressure vessel where a heated mixture of water and lye breaks down the body into its chemical components (i.e. amino acids, peptides, sugars, salts, and calcium phosphate)
ogLA TIL Up to 70% of people will experience a hypnagogic jerk when falling asleep. A hypnagogic jerk is an involuntary muscle spasm that occurs as a person is drifting off to sleep. The phenomenon is so named in reference to the hypnogogic state — the transitional period between wakefulness and sleep.