› added 9 years ago

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TIL it has been 20 minutes since the Cubs last won the World Series

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woPxo TIL the Stellar's sea cow, an extinct sea mammal like manatee, stretching 30 feet, had so much blubber it couldn't submerge itself entirely
ne697 TIL that in the 1940s, actress Joan Hickson appeared in an Agatha Christie play, following which the author sent her a note reading “I hope one day you will play my dear Miss Marple. 41 years later, Hickson was cast as Miss Marple in a BBC series of Marple adaptations.
9Yb6X TIL that the reason purple was so highly valued in the ancient world for centuries, is because the only known dye was extracted from a very rare type of sea snail. In fact, there was only one place in the world it was harvested; the Phoenician city of Tyre.
b6MGa TIL about the Grafton castaways, a real-life version of Gilligan's Island. Shipwrecked in 1864 on the Auckland Islands for almost 20 months, 5 men survived by building a thatched hut with glass windows and bookshelves. They crafted a forge to work metal, tanned leather, made soap from seashells etc.
6EnJW TIL Jean-Claude Van Damme took up ballet when he was young, and has said "If you can survive a ballet workout, you can survive a workout in any other sport."