› added 1 month ago

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TIL of Annie Wilkins, a 63 year old farmer who, given two years to live, embarked on a 4000 mile journey across the US to see the Pacific Ocean

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8DwL TIL that a Johns Hopkins professor procured 34 gallons of whiskey during prohibition for his research. He observed that subjects got better at throwing darts as they got drunker.
0wM1A TIL that the ingredients used by the witches in Macbeth, such as eye of newt and toe of frog, are actually just old terms for herbs, flowers and plants. In particular, eye of newt is the name for mustard seeds and toe of frog refers to buttercups.
RLN9 [TIL] Nestle agreed in 2001 to ensure its products were not made with slave labor by 2005. In 2005, the international organization it made the agreement with found it had not done so.
5YerD TIL during WWII an American plane was shot down on the Japanese island of Chi Chi Jama. There were nine men on board, eight of whom were captured, tortured, beheaded, and eaten. The only one to evade capture had ditched his plane further from the island than the others. He name was George HW Bush.
b4O0 TIL After JFK was assassinated, there was a brief scuffle between local and federal authorities when the President’s security detail wasn’t allowed to remove his body from the hospital. It ended when the Secret Service agents put the local officials against the wall at gunpoint.