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TIL that in 550 AD, the Byzantine Emperor sent two monks to China to smuggle silk worms out of there to avoid Persian control over the Silk Road. The monks hid the worms in their walking sticks, and the silk industry they started lasted for 650 years.

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1amQd TIL in 1921 a Danish geologist discovered a tiny island on the northern coast of Greenland and named it "Kaffeklubben Island" after an informal academic club held at the Copenhagen Mineralogical Museum. He didn't know that he had just named the northernmost point of land on Earth after a coffee club
vP81x TIL an adult male peasant in the UK in the 13th century (1,620 hours/year) worked less hours per year than both: an average worker in the US in 1850 (3,150-3,650 hours/year) and an average worker in the US in 1987 (1,949 hours/year).
4Xgra TIL that Walt Disney's original idea for EPCOT was an entire city of people living in Disney World. Everyone was required to work, and since EPCOT would own their land or home, nobody would have any municipal voting rights.
a8EOZ TIL Katharine Hepburn- the person with the current record Academy Awards for acting (4)- never accepted the Oscars because she didn't believe in the concept, saying her work was its own prize. She did attend the ceremony, once, though, for other reasons.
rR4BW TIL the first living creature to orbit the earth was Laika, a stray Russian dog. Russian scientists figured a stray dog already learned to endure harsh conditions of cold temperature and hunger making it an ideal astronaut.