› added 10 years ago

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TIL there was a court case named United States v. Approximately 64,695 Pounds of Shark Fins, and the shark fins won

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LkMYp TIL thanks to the dedicated evaluation by Dr. Frances Oldham Kelsey (a young pharmacologist who had just started working at the Food and Drug Administration), Thalidomide was banned in the USA and worldwide in 1962. The drug caused massive birth defects such as missing ears and flipper limbs.
5VgmD TIL on March 22nd, 1989, a sub-kilometer-sized asteroid called 581 Asclepius came within 500,000 miles of hitting the earth. The collision would have released energy comparable to a 600 megaton atomic bomb. The asteroid was discovered nine days after its closest approach to the Earth.
oBAdW TIL that earwax varies by ethnicity. Black or white people typically have yellow and sticky earwax, while Asian or Native Americans typically have dry and white earwax.
8e1RV TIL that the aluminium based Airstream was the only travel trailer builder in America to survive the Great Depression.
bVrj TIL 450 years ago King Charles V of Spain commissioned a mechanical monk, an automaton, to be made as thanks to God for saving his son. This is one of the first robots made by humans. It still works to this day