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18

TIL Bananas are berries, but strawberries aren't

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yVW9w TIL that parchment is made from animal skins or leather. All my life I always thought it was made from wood like other papers.
9wgZD TIL when doctors realized that Rudolph Valentino would die (at age 31 in 1926) due to disease, they withheld the information from him, which was common for the time. Valentino was briefly conscious and chatted with his doctors about his future, but soon lapsed into a coma and died a few hours later.
ZGjD TIL a study by British sociologists found 7 distinct social classes: Elite, Established middle class, Traditional working class, Technical middle class, Emergent service workers, New affluent workers and Precariat. Whom people know and what they do contribute to their class as much as income.
5JMD TIL Russia trained and deployed about 40,000 anti tank dogs in WW2. The dogs were loaded up with explosives and trained to run under tanks where they would be detonated. Many dogs got scared, returned to their own trenches, and killed their Russian trainers.
MeajA TIL Lighthouses had different techniques for rotating the light, most being too slow, making the light less visible. Augustin Fresnel proposed a mercury flotation system in 1825. Despite some lenses weighing over 6,000 lbs. the design reduced friction, increased rotation, and ultimately saved lives.