› added 9 years ago

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TIL The sun will never set on the present-day British Empire, due to the smallest and most isolated of the 14 territories, the Pitcairn Islands, which only has a population of a few dozen people. Until there is an eclipse there, Britain remains the empire on which the sun never sets.

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VM7ZB TIL William Walker was a mercenary from Tennessee, who organized several military expeditions into Latin America. He usurped the presidency of Nicaragua in 1856. And ruled over there for 1 year, making him the first and only American president in a Latino country
XEgED TIL about how we test toxic chemicals without using animals: instead, we use data mining software to mathematically predict toxic effects based on the molecule's structure.
WVlX TIL When JFK was running for office in 1946, his father paid a man with the same name as his biggest opponent to run for election, thus confusing voters and taking votes away from the true opponent.
MeNvW TIL there isn’t a single reported case of a person dying from a Tarantula bite.
xWb7 TIL that on the same day James Van Allen announced his discovery of the “Van Allen” radiation belt, he agreed to help the US military nuke it to see what happened. It was described by historian James Fleming as the first time “someone discovered something and immediately decided to blow it up”.