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TIL That coconut water, being almost identical to blood plasma, can be used as a plasma substitute. During World War II, many soldiers in the Pacific were saved through emergency transfusion using coconut water as replacement for intravenous plasma.

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8aD94 TIL Harriet Tubman suffered a violent head injury as a child causing her to frequently slip into into sleep like states. These would produce vivid dreamlike hallucinations that Tubman interpreted as messages from god, to devote her life to freeing southern slaves through the Underground Railroad.
Z8o9a TIL There is a giant "Parabelrutsche" or Parabolic slide in the Mathematics department of the technical university in Munich.
oRmn7 TIL that the very first "crowd wave" at a sports event ocurred spontaneously. At a Colorado Rockies NHL ice hockey game in 1980, a section of the crowd rose to their feet slightly later than the section beside them. This continued around the area to complete a "wave", without having been prompted.
p8ja8 TIL that in the 1960's Philip Morris increased the addictiveness of Marlboro cigarettes by chemically free-basing the nicotine, which enhances potency without changing actual nicotine levels. ABC news accused PM of spiking Marlboro's with extra nicotine, and PM sued them for 10 billion USD.
d87x7 TIL The first gun in Canadian history was a matchlock musket introduced by Sir Humphrey Gilbert when he arrived in Newfoundland in 1583. The first guns made in Canada date back to the 1830s when William Gurd of York built guns that had locks converted from flintlocks