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94

TIL the material asbestos has been used by humans for over 4,500 years. In antiquity, a Sassanian king amazed his guests when he cleaned his asbestos napkin by throwing it into a fire.

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Rop6 TIL a sly foodie convinced upper class Americans not to ever wash their salad bowls. The idea was that the dressing would cure the wooden bowl over time and make better and better salads. The real result was a rancid, smelly bowl. The practice continued for thirty years.
0d8MA TIL In 1833, Britain used 40% of its national budget to pass the Slavery Abolition Act. The British government borrowed £20 million to compensate slave owners, but nothing was paid to the enslaved people themselves. The loan was one of the largest in history and wasn't paid off until 2015.
kORN4 TIL the last German troops to surrender after World War II were a group of soldiers stationed at a meteorological station on Svalbard. They lost radio contact in May 1945 and were unable to radio for support until August 1945. They were picked up by Norwegian seal hunters on September 4.
94EQ TIL that Fair Oaks Farms in Indiana produces compressed natural gas from its cows’ waste and uses it to fuel their fleet of delivery trucks and farm equipment. This practice saves 1.5 million gallons of diesel and reduced CO2 emissions by 1.4 million metric tons.
rAoe TIL in the 1980s a man with severe OCD shot himself in the head in an attempt to commit suicide. Instead of killing him, the bullet destroyed the part of his brain that was responsible for his OCD, and he went on to become a straight-A college student five years later.