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TIL that in 1846 Christian Friedrich Schönbein discovered a formula for nitrocellulose when working in his kitchen. He spilled nitric acid and sulfuric acid on the kitchen table, wiped it up with a cotton apron, then hung it on the stove door to dry. As soon as it was dry, the apron ignited.

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wY41 TIL Most American adults will never develop past stages 4-6 on Loevinger’s 9-stage developmental scale. Below the seventh stage, most can’t even grasp the existence stages of development beyond their own. Less than 1% of the population will ever reach the 9th, or “Integrated” stage.
VBXK8 TIL research suggests "huh?" is a universal syllable. It's used to express confusion in at least 31 different languages, e.g. Icelandic, Dutch, Japanese, Hungarian, Lao, the Aboriginal Australian language Murriny Patha, Cha’palaa (spoken by 3k indigenous Ecuadorians), and of course, English.
Q816 TIL Brendenn Bremmer was a genius–started reading as a toddler, played piano at age 3, delivered a high school commencement speech at age 10, and breezed through college courses with an IQ of 178–who committed suicide at age 14 with no warning signs of depression and no explanation or suicide note
EXgW TIL having a gun in your house no matter the way it is stored does not decrease your chance of homicide. Instead it increases the chances of homicide by 300% and suicide by 500%.
xVwe1 TIL that the 1877 novel Black Beauty, now considered a children's classic, was written for adults by author Anna Sewell to highlight the problem of animal abuse and was subtitled "The Autobiography of a Horse." Ironically, Sewell was an invalid at the time and could not ride herself.