› added 8 months ago

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TIL Galileo observed Neptune with his telescope in 1612, recording it as a star, 234 years before is was formally discovered.

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KYMPR TIL hair stands on end when the chance of lightning will strike nearby.
XEOVj TIL in 1964, a bristlecone pine was killed after a graduate research student accidentally got his tree core stuck in it's trunk. The tree was cut down to retrieve the core only to find out it was the oldest known living organism known at that time. It was estimated to be over 5,000 years old.
DQMmg TIL that the Hindenburg (which was filled with flammable hydrogen gas) had a smoking lounge. The entrance to the lounge was pressurized, and the bartender had to make sure no hydrogen gas leaked, or if someone walked with a lit pipe or lit cigarette
W4md TIL that on a trip to England in 1698, Peter the Great loved the taste of stout beers, but was unable to take any back with him to Russia before it spoiled. To mitigate this, London brewers added more hops and alcohol to their stouts thus creating a new beer style, the Russian Imperial Stout.
l7LmK TIL that a third of the cast and crew of the 1956 film The Conqueror, including John Wayne and director Dick Powell, developed cancer—likely due to filming near a nuclear test site.