› added 11 years ago

80

TIL The death of the pope used to be confirmed by hitting him in the head with a silver hammer.

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vPKvx TIL that Jeff Kinney, the creator of the Diary of a Wimpy Kid series, was also thee creator and designer behind the classic flash game, Poptropica.
VBgpZ TIL of Viktor Belenko, the Soviet pilot who defected with the MiG-25 (most advanced Soviet interceptor of its time), who initially assumed that his CIA handlers were keeping him in an elaborate tourist trap made to impress foreigners because he couldn't comprehend the sheer abundance he was seeing.
R7498 TIL the oldest living Alligator, "Muja" in the Belgrade Zoo, not only survived WW2 (where the Belgrade zoo was almost totally destroyed) but also the 1999 NATO bombings during the war in Serbia, 54 years later. He is estimated to be at least 80 years old. But there are no records of his DOB.
69WlY TIL that 50% of the earth’s oxygen comes from phytoplankton, microscopic organisms they live on the surface of the oceans.
wgaY TIL that in 1382, a French bookseller named Nicholas Flamel claimed to have transformed lead into gold after decoding an ancient book of alchemy. True or not, historical records show that Flamel did come into considerable wealth around this time, and donated his riches to charity.