› added 2 years ago

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TIL about industrial melanism,where darkly pigmented insects are selected over lightly coloured ones in industrial areas,because the trees are blackened by soot and provide camouflage.

b6mOj TIL that a Florida attorney, E.E. Calloway, believed that the area around Florida’s Torreya State Park was the site of the biblical Garden of Eden and created a tourist attraction where people could tour the site. He also believed the torreya trees in the park were used to build Noah’s Ark.
N76gN TIL that Rod Serling wrote one of "The Twilight Zone" episodes as his reaction to JFK assassination. The episode ends with the news broadcast saying that the sky has turned dark over the street in Dallas; as well as North Vietnam, part of the Berlin Wall and "other places of hate around the world".
JZm8 TIL that tomatoes, although botanically a fruit, are legally a vegetable as a result of the 1893 Supreme Court case Nix v. Hedden, as “they are seen as vegetables because they are usually eaten as a main course instead of being eaten as a dessert.”
8avGZ TIL a B-17 bomber named Old 666 survived being attacked by 20 Japanese fighters for 40 minutes. The pilot and a gunner earned the Medal of Honor, the rest of the crew each received the Distinguished Service Cross. To this day, they're the most decorated American aircrew in history.
j6V7X TIL about Roberto Suarez Gomez, “King of Cocaine. Roberto was considered the biggest producer of cocaine in Bolivia and supplier to the Medellín cartel. He was a descendent of the Suárez brothers: who enslaved and exploited natives to collect rubber. Roberto only served 7 years in jail.