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TIL of Lake Chad, which has shrunk by over 90% since the '60s due to poor environmental management. The ecological catastrophe continues to endanger the water supply of 30 million people in West Africa

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XEMmk TIL that there is a severe shortage of ‘spitter apples’ which are preferred for making ciders because during prohibition the FBI went around chopping down huge swaths of orchards, effectively erasing much of the nation’s stock of spitter apple trees that initially take 20-30 years to grow.
j6pBp TIL that when Dylan Thomas (the Welsh poet) died, his widow had his body shipped from New York to Wales. While they were under way, she discovered a group of sailors unwittingly using the coffin as a card table. She decided not to say anything as she thought her husband would have liked it.
WOMX TIL in 1985, Ryan White was refused re-entry to his school due to him having AIDS. 117 Parents and 50 teachers petitioned for his ban. People even cancelled their subscriptions as White was the paperboy and they believed they would be infected via newsprint.
x6jgb TIL Apollo 17 astronaut Harrison Schmitt presented a 14 gram lunar rock sample sealed in a clear container the size of a pickle jar to the White House in 2018 to mark Space Policy Directive 1, which directs NASA to return humans to the moon
e0kvE TIL it's possible for hay and straw to spontaneously combust if it's too wet when stored.