› added 7 years ago

108

TIL that there may have been a European settlement in South America prior to the arrival of Columbus.

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9wJNM TIL the Panathenaic Stadium, built in 330BC, is the only stadium made entirely of marble, was excavated and used in the 1896 Olympics, and and is still used for events today. Its record attendance of 80,000 was for a basketball game in 1968.
On5e TIL the American spelling of aluminum (as opposed to aluminium in other countries) is the result of a misspelling by the inventor of a refinement process named Charles Martin Hall. The process was so revolutionary that the spelling stuck.
oBpQE TIL Kate Winslet keeps her Oscar in the bathroom so her guests can hold it and make acceptance speeches in the mirror without feeling self conscious
QwxL TIL that human fingers don’t contain muscles. The muscles that move them are in the palm and forearm
xVjWo TIL the Chinese gov. has been sending seeds to space to promote plant mutations for various crops. Good mutations are used to improve crops back on earth. The method has produced giant eggplants, half-meter long cucumbers, and peppers with improved yields and reduced seeds.