› added 11 months ago

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TIL the "Redwood of the East" - a 100ft-tall tree that once covered 25% of Eastern US forests, produced tons of food, and built America's industrial backbone - lost 99.9% of its population to a catastrophic blight.

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l7Mba TIL: Average american toilets clog far more than European ones (by design choice) and that's why they are always talking about plungers.
nexdr TIL that one air crash, Delta Flight 1141, was caused by the pilots talking about another air crash, Continental Flight 1713. They were so distracted by their own conversation they forgot to lower the flaps. The other air crash they were talking about also involved too much non-relevant discussion
rNWWW TIL That Najin is one of the two remaining northern white rhinos in the world, protected round-the-clock by armed guards against poachers. Both Najin & Fatu are female, and this makes the subspecies functionally extinct.
JYkvj TIL famous French philosopher René Descartes died in Stockholm, Sweden after contracting pneumonia at the cold and draughty castle of Queen Christina which he agreed to teach her 3 times a week at 5am.
a8QRy TIL there have been many battles fought at Thermopylae since the famous one in 480BCE, including the most recent involving New Zealand and Australian troops holding back invading German troops in 1941