› added 5 years ago

400

TIL the Nile river valley used to be a deep canyon system, up to 1.8 km deep where Cairo is today (the same depth as the Grand Canyon). It filled with sentiment 5 million years ago when the Mediterranean Sea refilled after a period of drying out.

1anld TIL About the Long Depression, which was a period of major economic downturn directly following the Second Industrial Revolution. It was dubbed the Great Depression until the crash of 1929.
OGnY7 TIL: In the US Virgin Islands, you drive on the Left (the only US Territory that does so). But because the vehicles are US Federalized Imports, drivers also sit on the Left hand side of the car.
N7wgE TIL baby Sanddollars (like a sea urchin) eat the heaviest bits of sand they can find, to weigh them down so they don't get swept away, like a teeny tiny weight belt
rRNd4 To strain out the nasty stuff we breathe in. It’s like an air filter in your house, says Justin Turner, an otolaryngologist (short, sort of, for otorhinolaryngologist, Greek for ear (oto), nose (rhino), and throat (laryng)) at Stanford University. Nose hairs trap dirt, viruses, bacteria and toxins until we blow them out, sneeze, or swallow.
Oxd1 TIL The Colossus of Rhodes, one of the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World, stood for a mere 50 years before it was destroyed by an earthquake. Its ruins stood and attracted visitors for way longer than the original statue (reportedly hundreds of years) before it was finally recycled for scrap metal.