› added 10 years ago

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TIL that the reason today’s artificial banana flavoring for candy tastes so differently than an actual banana is because it is based on the Gros Michel Banana, which was nearly wiped out in the 50’s due to a fungus. The bananas we eat today are from the Cavendish family.

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VMkEZ TIL the Colosseum was built in just 10 years
dDkmr TIL when Chi Chi, a giant panda at the London Zoo, was taken to Moscow to breed with a male giant panda, she refused his attempts to mate with her and made a full sexual self-presentation to a zookeeper.
m1EjE TIL Marquis de la Fayette, known as 'The Hero of the Two Worlds' for the key role he played in both the American and French Revolutions, is descended from another man also known as de la Fayette, who was a companion-at-arms of Joan of Arc and fought England in the Siege of Orleans in 1429
MeA1A TIL of Hellfire Clubs, 18th century social clubs, extant in UK, where men and women gathered to perform socially unacceptable actions while simultaneously mocking religion, satirically, in a time when it was blasphemous to do so.
ZR7B TIL the singer of “Peanut Butter Jelly Time” died in an 11-hour-long police standoff. His brother in law, Snoop Dogg, tried and failed to calm him down and convince him to surrender.