› added 7 years ago

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TIL that a Japanese chemical company once polluted a bay so thoroughly that some sediment contained up to 2 kg of mercury per ton. This concentration made mining economically viable, and eventually the company set up a subsidiary to do just that.

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oDPR TIL Don McLean occasionally accidentally sang the lyrics to Weird Al’s Star Wars parody of “American Pie” when performing it onstage
4Ogg TIL that Saddam Hussein used Whitney Houston’s “I Will Always Love You” as his campaign song in the 2002 election
V6nG TIL forrest growth in the US has exceeded harvest since the 1940s, and that the US has more trees now than at any time in the past 100 years.
LkpeV TIL that the German submarine U-1206 was lost due to a toilet malfunction: the leak flooded the submarine's batteries causing them to release chlorine gas, leaving the Commander with no alternative but to surface. Once surfaced, U-1206 was discovered and bombed by British patrols.
9wPXM TIL of J.W.H.T. Douglas, an English cricket player from the early 1900s, who drowned when the ship he was sailing on crashed into another. The captains of the ships were brothers, and were attempting to wish each other a Merry Christmas in passing when one rammed the other in heavy fog.