› added 2 weeks ago

5

TIL in 1890, August Kekulé, who was a German scientist, announced that his discovery of the ring structure of benzene came to him in a dream. Kekulé talked about dancing and whirling atoms. The atoms arranged themselves as a snake. He dreamed of the snake eating its own tail.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

wLo7W TIL that the ADE 651; an inert rod of metal with a plastic hinge, was sold as a bomb detector. It was used by the militaries of Iraq, Afghanistan and more than a dozen other countries for years before anyone noticed that it did nothing at all.
KOlrw TIL President Roosevelt's dog, Fala, was so popular that American soldiers would ask one another for the name of the dog in order to prove they weren't a German spy
D9Er TIL the testicles Will Ferrell used in Step Brothers cost $10,000 to make, and are now one of his most treasured keepsakes.
EgxP7 TIL In 2015, the UK government paid off its remaining debt of £1.9bn from World War One
P6oZ TIL the Soviets suffered more casualties at the Battle of Stalingrad than the Americans did for the entirety of World War 2.