› added 7 years ago

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TIL the the Civil War cost 620,000 American lives, more than this country’s other wars combined, from the Revolution through Vietnam. That was about 2% of the population; if it happened now, historians estimate, the equivalent number of dead would total 6 million.

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LkJNp TIL that in 1915, a pilot planned a stunt to drop a baseball into an MLB coach’s glove from a plane during a flyover. As a prank she dropped a grapefruit instead; it exploded in the coach’s glove and covered him in red pulp, and he was convinced he was seriously injured and bleeding to death.
jN5oM TIL that ornithologists often use Cheetos to study behaviour in crows. Along with being easy to spot, they’re also one of the birds’ favourite snacks.
Z8GaQ TIL that the beautiful symmetry of a total solar eclipse happens because —by pure chance— the sun is 400 times larger than the moon, but is also 400 times farther from Earth, making the two bodies appear the exact same size in the sky.
1BPX TIL the first Sci-fi novel was written in 2nd Century AD, and featured a group of sailors whose ship is caught in a waterspout and sent to the moon.
OoQg6 TIL about Pierre Latreille, a French zoologist who was imprisoned for refusing to swear an oath of allegiance to the state. While in prison, he recognized a rare beetle on the cell floor. Latreille's recognition of the beetle ultimately saved both he and one of his cell mates from the guillotine.