› added 7 years ago

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TIL the President's desk in the Oval Office of the White House was a gift from Queen Victoria to President Rutherford B. Hayes in 1880, & was carved from the HMS Resolute, a 19th century British Royal Navy ship that an American whaler recovered from the Arctic

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e0WBD TIL that Hawaii's statehood was delayed for several decades because of consistent opposition by the "Solid South" (southern states) who refused to tolerate non-white Congressmen
wMP7 TIL that Misha Collins (Castiel from “Supernatural”) is the founder and Guiness Book Of World Records recipient of “The Greatest International Scavenger Hunt the World Has Ever Seen” or the world’s largest scavenger hunt.
4695 TIL dogs are placed with cheetahs in captivity to help keep them calm.
6EwAw TIL that there are approximately 80 hippos in Columbia. This is because Pablo Escobar had 4 imported from America in 1981 for his own private collection. The hippos escaped and have now shade what is believed to be a positive impact on Columbian river ecosystems.
Yp7m7 Consider the autoclave, which scientists use to sterilize tools and which issues scalding steam to do so. Or consider the heat gun, which is used to dry glassware and to warm distillation devices. It can also ignite anything flammable that gets too close. Glass containers in a vacuum can implode, spraying shards everywhere. Centrifuge rotors can fail, causing explosions that throw shock waves throughout a lab filled with chemicals. Steel vessels built to contain liquids and gases at hundreds of pounds of pressure per square inch can rupture, hurling metal at lab workers.