› added 10 years ago

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TIL the United States is second behind China in the consumption of illegal animal products like ivory, rhinoceros horn and tiger blood

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4k85b TIL that one of the most popular stars of the silent film era in Hollywood was a Japanese man named Sessue Hayakawa. His “broodingly handsome good looks” made him a “heartthrob for American women”.
WRw4 TIL After Pope Gregory IX associated cats with devil worship, cats throughout Europe were exterminated in droves. This sudden lack of cats led to an increase in rat infestation which in turn increased the spread of disease, the most devastating being the Bubonic Plague.
8apKX TIL a SwissAir flight was recording a documentary when an engine failed. The film crew was able to capture the calm and cool of the pilots while they turned the engine off, informed passengers, dumped fuel, ate chocolate and took a coffee break.
negro TIL For his Hitler biograpahy, Peter Longerich employed the diaries of Goebbels and the drafts of Hitler’s writings for his research into Hitler’s rise to power and his descent into madness. His increasingly irrational behavior lead to critical errors that hastened the Nazis’ defeat
1AKO TIL UC Berkeley is developing a free timeline of the history of everything– Starting from the Big Bang 13.8 Billion years ago to the present.