› added 4 years ago

58

TIL There is a chlamydia epidemic among koalas.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

loGW5 TIL that one of the reasons the Piltdown Man hoax, the supposed missing link between ape and man found in Britain, fooled so many was because many European scientists, especially Britons, wanted to believe that the earliest humans came from Europe and not from Africa due to their prejudices.
yQxYe TIL The earliest recorded epidemic dates back to the Peloponnesian War, 430 BC. he ancient Greek historian Thucydides described the symptoms of a disease believed to be typhoid fever. Known as the Great Athenian Plague, it killed about 100,000 people, or two-thirds of the population there.
1b5X TIL in 1856 Sir Andrew Waugh calculated the height of Mt. Everest to be exactly 29,000ft. However, he published the calculation of 29,002ft. due to the fear that the former would seem like nothing more than a rounded estimate. This makes him the first person to put two feet on top of Mt. Everest.
69oY7 TIL Dave Pickton, the brother of serial killer Robert Pickton started a foundation in Ghana to help the poor in Africa
jNBMQ TIL the inventor of the Erector Set also released an "Atomic Energy Laboratory" that included real uranium ore. One suggested activity was to play "hide and seek with the gamma ray source" by using the included Geiger counter to find a radioactive sample hidden in a room.