› added 12 years ago

164

TIL that in 1870 Gilbert Bates marched 400 miles through England carrying the American flag to prove that the English did not hate Americans. He was honored as a hero.

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pYnm8 TIL Astronomer Rudolf Wolf only counted large sunspots that were clearly visible so observations can be consistent with older telescopes, even though his assistant noted that one can actually detect many more sunspots
p8Kye TIL that Sagittarius A* - the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way - has a mass 4 million times that of our Sun, but a diameter only 31 times the Sun's. It is so dense that it could fit in the space between the Earth and the Sun, but can attract things 50k light years away.
XEn0j SpaceX astronauts brought a little dinosaur in the rocket.
wRnP TIL Hydrochloric Acid does not digest food. | It sanitizes the stomach, denatures uncooked protein, and activates an enzyme called Pepsin that does digest food.
7rJ5L TIL a separatist movement in the 60% German-speaking Italian province of South Tyrol advocates the region's reunification with neighboring Austria. Italy was incentivized to enter World War I when a treaty permitted absorbing Tyrol. It was ceded in reparations, breaking Woodrow Wilson's promise.