› added 4 years ago

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TIL NASA has online 3D models of all of the planets in our solar system, as well as several moons, probes, and the ISS.

Read more solarsystem.nasa.gov

via reddit.com

6MB7 TIL that no one, including an expert Belgian botanist, could find a method of pollination of vanilla to make it viable for cultivation outside of South America… until a 12-year-old slave named Edmond Albius discovered it could be hand-pollinated. This led to the global cultivation of the plant.
WRRo TIL In 2005 the Italian Prime Minister, Berlusconi, insulted Finnish cuisine and joked that Finns ate “marinated reindeer”. In 2008, Finland won an international pizza contest, beating Italy. The name of the winning pizza was “Pizza Berlusconi” which was made of smoked reindeer.
wLEZE TIL that sugar was marketed as a diet aid in the 1970s.
40na TIL: From having lived and worked in China, President Herbert Hoover and his wife were fluent in Mandarin Chinese, and would frequently have conversations in the language to prevent their staff from eavesdropping.
njmW TIL that in January 1992 28.000 bath toys fell off a cargo ship. Some of them are still out there.