› added 10 years ago

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TIL that the Jonas Salk, who developed the world’s first successful Polio vaccine, refused to patent his discovery. The vaccine was valued to be worth $7 billion had it been patented.

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xV5m7 TIL that the Guanches, the native people of the Canary Islands, had, despite living on, obviously, islands, no knowledge of constructing boats or navigating them. This led to the development of seven different cultures on the seven Canary Islands.
PY85G TIL that the doctor who figured out that washing hands greatly reduced the death rate of women after childbirth was viewed as a madman and later confined to an insane asylum where he died 2 weeks after.
ND4M TIL that in 2007, a 75 year old woman smashed up a Comcast office with a hammer because she was fed up with their poor customer service
69Bj8 TIL Vancouver's Stanley Park Hollow Tree Conservation Society voted to save a six-metre-wide dead Hollow Tree stump and paid $200,000 worth of restoration work. The parks board voted to cut down the 700 year old tree, because it was a safety hazard
o1pK TIL there’s a caterpillar called the Jewel Caterpillar in the Amazon Rainforest that looks like a walking gummy worm.