› added 4 years ago

179

TIL: Helium is the only element that was not first discovered on Earth. Instead, it was discovered in 1868 in the form of previously unknown spectral lines in the light of the sun.

Read more sciencefriday.com

via reddit.com

vP1MK TIL: London was originally called Londinium and was founded by the Romans around 50AD
QNlD6 TIL President Nixon had a personal valet, Manolo Sanchez, whom he was so close and depended on the two developed a constructed language "sometimes using words that only the two of them understood".
8a6EV TIL mother polar bears nurse their cubs for as long as 30 months. Some cubs stop nursing as young as 18 months of age, but remain with their mothers for survival until they are 30 months old. The average fat content of polar bear milk is 33%, similar to the milkfat content of other marine mammals.
4kVpa TIL The founder of Sony hired an outspoken critic of their products so they could make better products. 20 years later, he became the president of Sony.
j66Pa TIL that a species of beetle endemic to Slovenia is being poached by Nazi items collectors because of its name: Anophthalmus hitleri. It was chosen in honor of Adolph Hitler, in 1933, by a German collector, Oskar Scheibel.