› added 10 years ago

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TIL the person most directly responsible for the scale of tragedy of the Titanic was a radio operator who told the closest ship to shut up after it radioed iceberg warnings. As a result the ship shut off its radio. It would easily have arrived in time to save everyone on board.

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J11JV TIL that skunks are immune to snake venom and will eat venomous snakes. Skunks are one of the only animals who have this immunity and are unaffected by doses of venom 100 times higher than those that could kill a household pet.
0d5N TIL that in France in the 1500s, women could charge their husbands with impotence. He would have to become erect and show he could ejaculate in a courtroom. If he failed, he could demand a Trial by Congress and attempt to have sex with his wife in front of the experts.
EdLo TIL a 15-minute film of Marilyn Monroe engaging in oral sex was bought for $1.5 million by a New York businessman
a8rdo TIL the first email was sent in 1971, almost two decades before the World Wide Web existed
Q0Ga TIL Robert Ballard’s mission to find the Titanic, was actually a secret Cold War mission to find and investigate wrecked nuclear submarines Thresher and Scorpion. They finished earlier, so they spent the extra time looking for the Titanic and found it.