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TIL As a reward for the victory at Blenheim, the Crown gave the Duke of Marlborough the Woodstock estate on condition that a replica of a captured French standard be presented annually to the British monarch — that ceremonial “peppercorn” tradition has been observed for 300+ years.

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b9L6N TIL that the same engineer who was responsible for adding lead (TEL) to gasoline was also responsible for the widespread use of CFCs as refrigerants. The same person was responsible for two of the worst air pollutants of the twentieth century.
P1pGE TIL there was a species of marsupial lions in Australia. The now extinct Thylacoleo ("pouch lion")
prkb TIL Second world countries refers to the former socialist, industrial states. I.e. Russia and China
KOZ4R TIL that the dust storm that sets off the events in the film "The Martian" isn't plausible because the atmosphere on Mars is about 1% as dense as Earth's and the winds in the strongest Martian storms top out at about 60 miles per hour, unlikely to tip or rip apart major mechanical equipment.
eNP6 TIL when you get a sunburn, it’s not your skin cells being damaged by the sun and dying, it’s your skin cells’ DNA being damaged by the sun and them killing themselves so they don’t turn into cancer