› added 9 years ago

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TIL the Sun is the most perfect sphere ever observed in nature.

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M7xwm TIL that "The Nutcracker" ballet wasn't considered a success when it premiered in 1892. It wasn't performed in the United States until the 1940s and didn't gain widespread popularity and develop into a holiday staple until the 1960s.
D1b4P TIL one of the richest families in history was a German merchant dynasty, the Fuggers. One member, Jackob Fugger (d. 1525) ranks among the wealthiest men in modern history with $400 billion, 2% of Europe's GDP. The name Fugger was originally rendered as, Fucker.
mxyxR TIL that one of the attempts to find El Dorado, the mythical city of gold, involved draining a lake using a bucket chain of laborers. Over three months, the lake level fell 3 meters and only recovered about $100K worth of gold.
dQMj TIL that when early humans transitioned from hunter gathering to agriculture, it actually lowered their standards of living.
P1NPV TIL: Thielbek was a cargo steamship that was built in Germany in 1940, sunk in an air raid on 3 May 1945 killing 2,750 people aboard. 1949, four years after her sinking, Thielbek was refloated and used until 1974. Human remains found aboard her were buried in the Cap Arcona cemetery at Neustadt.