› added 4 years ago

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TIL that Stalin's poorly planned canal projects in the Amu Darya river and Syr Darya river to divert water to cotton fields was one of the major causes of drying of Aral Sea and completely destroying ecosystem around it which was the 4th largest lake at the time.

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via reddit.com

EvGp TIL: Two kittens, and three men, crossed the Atlantic on a raft made of 9 telephone poles in 1956. The kittens were given to the Duke of Bedford, the Queen’s cousin, and lived out their days in luxury.
OoOae TIL that a USSR physicist published his equations for solving reflected electromagnetic waves from surfaces, as the Soviet authorities considered them insignificant for military purposes. His work was found by Lockheed in the 1970s, leading to a breakthrough in developing their stealth plane F-117.
1RPO TIL that an African American, Madam C.J. Walker, was the first female millionaire in the United States.
L0kP TIL that hot dog buns originated because customers were not returning gloves loaned out by the concessionaire to handle the sausages
76dP TIL that while the United States was performing lobotomies in the mid 1900’s, the Soviet Union banned them because they were “Contrary to the principles of humanity.”