› added 7 years ago

113

TIL of the Cistus plant which can self-ignite on fire under hot dry conditions, due to oils in its leaves.

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R7Nxl TIL telling ghost stories around a fire was originally a Christmas Eve tradition. Beginning with Charles Dickens' "A Christmas Carol" it was an annual tradition throughout the Victorian Era and only changed when Halloween became popular in the 1920s.
6gl TIL there is only one video of Mark Twain in existence and it was shot by Thomas Edison. [1:47] (X-Post from /r/videos)
778r TIL China & Nepal disagreed over the height of Mount Everest. Nepal wanted to include the height of the snow on the summit, and China only wanted to state the height of the rock. They argued for 5 years. It was a 4m difference.
Yp5AW TIL mercy dogs were trained during World War I to comfort mortally wounded soldiers as they died in no man's land
gryA TIL Michael Jordan makes more money from Nike annually than all of the Nike factory workers in Malaysia combined