› added 2 months ago

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TIL that over 60% of global iron reserves and most of the iron ore currently mined were created by precambrian bacteria. These cyanobacteria caused the Great Oxygenation Event, where free oxygen became much more common on Earth. Some of this oxygen combined with iron to form banded iron formations.

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oRP9Y TIL that Ernest Shackleton, a polar explorer most well known for the Endurance Expedition, when he led his entire crew out of the Antarctic ice after their ship had been crushed, was one of the men who testified at the British inquiry into the Titanic disaster.
E1jRX TIL US Civil War General William Tecumseh Sherman is responsible for the first-ever recorded mention of a squirt gun in 1865.
D1E9p TIL that the word Antarctic just mean "opposite of the arctic."
wMn7 TIL that Count Dracula was first depicted wearing a Bela Lugosi-style cape/tuxedo combo in 1924 when the book was adapted for London stage. It was the only way to make it obvious that the Count was charming and sophisticated from a distance.
167Y7 TIL that from 1643 to 1774-over 130 years-France had only 2 kings: Louie XIV and XV, the first and 20th longest reigning monarchs back to back.