› added 2 weeks ago

4

TIL that the Mount Tambora eruption had an explosive yield of 33 gigatons of TNT, 60 times more powerful than all nuclear weapons tests combined.

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5VJ8Q TIL Commodore Cornelius Vanderbilt nearly died in a train accident in 1833. John Quincy Adams was also on the train
9XNG TIL the first ever 3D movie was The Power Of Love, a silent film released in 1922. It was also the first film to have an alternative ending, and the viewer could choose between the happy and sad endings (both shot in 2D) by closing one eye or the other.
M7w0K TIL that the Sistine Chapel originally depicted nude figures, but the genitals got painted over after the Council of Trent banned nudity in religious art.
ANXrw TIL the Buddha's tribe of origin, the Shakyas, practiced the veneration of trees and sacred groves. Tree veneration remains important in Buddhism today, particularly in the practice of venerating Bodhi (fig) trees, the type of tree that the Buddha eventually attained enlightenment under.
p8bZN TIL about Princess Alexandria of Bavaria, who believed she had swallowed a glass grand piano when she was a child that could shatter at any time — and she was not the only royal with this delusion.