› added 4 years ago

97

TIL The Republic of China (Taiwan) and the USSR is still legally the permanent members of the United Nation Security Council

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KYEnG TIL: In a month, we ingest the weight of a 4x2 Lego brick in plastic, and in a year, the amount of plastic in a fireman's helmet. Over a lifetime, we consume about 20 kg (44 lb) of microplastic.
WkBjA TIL Pope Gregory IX's association of cats with witchcraft led to the wholesale slaughter of the critters, and some scholars believe believe that by the 1300’s, Europe’s cat numbers were sufficiently depleted to prevent them from killing rats and mice, allowing the bubonic plague to spread.
Adjg TIL Cuba has a 99.7% literacy rate
BgK1k TIL that Martin Luther King Jr's great great grandfather was Irish.
ANMmB TIL that when returning from space, the Space Shuttle made not one but two sonic booms due to its length, and that most supersonic planes have two, they are just too close together to differentiate by ear.