› added 8 months ago

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TIL that Belgian chemist Leo Baekeland, while trying to make a shellac substitute in 1907, accidentally invented Bakelite; the first fully synthetic plastic. Used to make everything from buttons and billiard balls, radios and firearms; it launched the modern plastics industry.

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via reddit.com

OojjY TIL that a man choked to death after winning a cockroach-eating contest. In Florida. For a snake.
lo6O7 TIL that an estimated one-quarter of all black swans pairings are of two males, and they are known to steal nests from females in order to obtain eggs to hatch.
WZPN TIL a kid dying in the Make a Wish Foundation asked for a bridge to be painted turquoise so it was… and birds keep dying by flying into it thinking it’s sky.
R7W46 TIL a near-mint copy of Action Comics No.1 dating from 1938 (the first comic book to feature Superman) now sells for $3.2 million
6EXnl TIL "End of the world" predictions are almost as long as the whole of modern human civilization. There are predictions about the end of the world going back to the time of Jesus Christ and it hasn't stopped.