› added 7 years ago

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TIL Harvard's first black faculty member was a dentist. Dr. George Franklin Grant joined the Dept of mechanical dentistry in 1871. Also an inventor, he patented the wooden golf tee. Previously, golfers carried around buckets of sand, placing their balls on little piles as they went.

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a88XZ TIL that Volcán Cayambe in Ecuador is the only place on Earth where the equator intersects snow-cover
Ampx TIL due to centuries of inbreeding Charles II of Spain was physically and mentally disabled and infertile. Due to the deaths of his half brothers, he was the last member of the male Spanish Habsburg line. He didn’t learn to walk until eight. His jaw was deformed, he could barely speak or chew.
rNaGe TIL the bizantines had to deal with a whale that attacked ships in the Bosporus Strait for 50 years
Lk8Xd TIL Wernher Von Braun wasn't just a member of the Nazi Party, he was an SS Sturmbannführer (Major). Thousands of prisoners died excavating his underground rocket factory, Kohnstein, to keep production safe from allied bombing. The US Army later kept these crimes against humanity classified.
AJVo TIL that when basking sharks decay their carcasses take on the appearance of plesiosaurs (ancient aquatic reptiles) including a long neck and tiny head. There have been numerous “plesiosaur” discoveries which turned out to be decayed sharks.