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TIL the origin of the word "bear" is "brown one". It's believed that there was a taboo around saying its name directly for fear of accidentally summoning one.

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vN0x TIL That for years the German military had a parge single shot flamethrower pistol called the “Handflammpatrone”. It was capable of firing a flaming grenade 90 meters, laying a 15 meter wide flame over a 50 meter long area along the way.
wLkL7 TIL there was a plan in the 1920s/30s to dam the Mediterranean Sea, create a series of hydroelectric dams, lower sea levels and make North Africa more fertile. It was imagined by a German who wanted to avoid another world war for resources, land and energy by providing plentiful resources for Europe
ay9b TIL that the word “Barbarian” was invented by the ancient Greeks as an insulting term for anyone who didn’t speak the Greek language - to their ears, everyone else sounded like they were just saying “bar bar bar” all the time
yQg7l TIL of the Cocoanut Grove fire, a deadly nightclub fire in 1940's Boston that led to laws requiring clearly lit exit signs and outward-swinging exit doors; it also saw the introduction of the now-widely used Lund and Browder chart, which estimates burn sizes on burn victims.
6EpJ7 TIL that in 2014 Korean Air vice president Heather Cho was so angry about receiving macadamia nuts in a bag instead of on a plate, she forced the plane to taxi back to gate and unload the offending flight attendant. "Nutgate" ended up costing her 5 months in jail