› added 11 years ago

159

TIL that Shrapnel is named after its inventor, Henry Shrapnel.

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VM45B TIL that stepping on a Stonefish, the world's most venomous fish, can result in needing crutches to walk for a month (if you survive the sting at all).
Y7ymG TIL The M3 "Grease gun" used by U.S troops in WW2 actually was made to replace the infamous "Tommy Gun" rather than the other way around.
rrY1 TIL that Denver Int'l Airport (at 53 sq miles) is larger than Manhattan, San Francisco & Miami and is the 2nd largest airport in the world.
lorL5 TIL the furthest point anyone can be from any sea on Earth is the Gurbantünggüt Desert in China which is over 1600 miles from the nearest coastline
N7ge TIL: George Lucas was sure Star Wars was going to flop, so he made a friendly bet with Stephen Spielberg: That if Close Encounters of the Third Kind made more money than SW, he would get 2.5% of the profit for all time, and vice versa. Spielberg still gets enormous, grudging checks today.