› added 8 months ago

39

TIL In the UK, you are required by law to have a television license to watch TV.

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rXMe TIL that a Native American people, the Choctaw, donated money to the Irish during the Great Famine after suffering starvation themselves in the Trail of Tears
1aY97 TIL that in 1924, a tunnel network was discovered underneath Washington D.C. Speculation behind the network's origins included a Confederate hideout or a liquor depot for bootleggers; they were actually dug by the Smithsonian Institute's entomologist Harrison G. Dyar, who 'did it for exercise'.
ADPZn TIL Elephants are known to take a great interest in the bones of their deceased and to mourn for dead relatives and Magpies have been observed burying their dead under twigs of grass
ALBn TIL a man revived 5 rivers and brought water back to 1000 villages in India using native water-preservation techniques
b9wG4 TIL The chemical in catnip and silver vine, iridoid nepetalactol, that turns cats on is actually a mosquito repellent. Cats have evolved an endophin response to plants with this chemical to protect themselves from bites on the face. They aren't just having fun.