› added 9 months ago

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TIL In El Salvador there is an archeological site called Joya de Cerén which is nicknamed “The Pompeii of North America” because it was buried by a volcanic eruption around 600 AD. To date, a total of 18 structures have been identified and 10 have been completely or partially excavated.

woADY TIL about "Armsünderfett" (German: fat or grease from "poor sinners" put to death). Many executioners recovered the fat from the bodies of their executant, to be used in ointments for various diseases.
GYPd4 TIL that famous stunt performer and daredevil Evel Knievel was about to die because he couldn't get a life-saving liver transplant. When he was literally going to die in his house he got a phonecall. There was a liver available from a young guy who just passed away... in a motorcycle accident.
X00d8 TIL French secret service agents bombed the Greenpeace ship "Rainbow Warrior in order to stop Greenpeace from disrupting underwater nuclear testing in 1985.
OGjW1 TIL in 2012, Spain’s King Juan Carlos I went elephant hunting in Botswana. The trip was meant to be secret, but he was badly injured and needed a medical flight home. A scandal erupted over the cost—and since he was an honorary president of the World Wildlife Fund at the time.
1arLO TIL - The inventor of the black box only worked on it in secret, and it was originally rejected by the aviation community due to privacy concerns. Before the invention, troubleshooting crashes was extremely difficult, and lessons learned from black boxes have improved airline safety significantly.