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TIL a Nilometer was a structure for measuring the Nile River's clarity and water level during the annual flood season

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jd9j TIL A British sailor in WWII escaped his submarine from depths of 171 feet and managed to get to the surface and survive.
D17kp TIL Walt Disney World near Orlando briefly had a real airport with a singing runway. Grooves in the tarmac were spaced so the lines played the opening notes of "When You Wish Upon a Star" when planes rolled over them. The airport closed in 1972.
yQmkV TIL not only does the Aztec word that became avocado mean “testicle” (because it grows in pairs), but the fruit was apparently adapted for megafauna like mammoths and giant sloths who would eat it and poop out its unusually large seed in distant locations.
9Y0JD TIL Produce grows freakishly large in Alaska...like, freakishly large.
D1ODg TIL in 1998 the average monetary loss of a 7-Eleven robbery was just $37.