› added 12 years ago

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TIL crocodiles are more closely related to birds than they are to lizards

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D1evD TIL to combat the spread of smallpox during the Civil War, soldiers would find someone with cowpox, cut open their pustules, and infect themselves with it. The less harmful cowpox made them immune to smallpox, but they sometimes confused cowpox with syphilis and gave themselves an STD instead.
QJXVL TIL The largest octopus species in the world, the giant Pacific octopus, has three hearts, nine brains, and blue blood.
J9dm TIL that Senator Strom Thurmond got married at the ages of 44 and 66. Both times were to a 22 year old winner of the Miss South Carolina beauty pageant.
Gm5N TIL that in 1948 the Nobel Peace prize was awarded to no one as “there was no suitable living candidate”. They did this in tribute to Mahatma Gandhi after he had been nominated that year but died before anyone was chosen.
eg4E TIL there is an island off the coast of Dublin, Ireland that has a population of wallabies. They are the descendents of animals that Dublin Zoo could no longer care for due to overcrowding