› added 7 years ago

85

TIL that after the U.S. Civil War, the U.S. filed financial claims against Great Britain, claiming that their support for the Confederacy prolonged the war. One Senator demanded a payment of $2 billion, but offered that the U.K. could just turn over Canada as payment instead.

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ANAWB TIL scientists discovered lipopeptides that kill microbes so efficiently they named them after Keanu Reeves. Just as Keanu was extremely deadly he was in his films, ‘keanumycins’ are devastating to human-pathogenic fungi and plant fungal diseases.
v19e7 TIL The Apollo 11 astronauts carried small flags from 150 countries and 50 US States with them to the moon. When they returned each flag was put on a plaque with a sample of moon dust and gifted to each country. The Russian space museum in Moscow has their gift on display.
a8GA9 TIL that the hulls of the famous first "six frigates" of the US Navy were constructed from the wood of the American live oak, a species unique to the northeastern United States with timber so dense that "a nail driven into it was nearly impossible to extract".
4kAeN TIL In Ancient China, chopsticks were invented and used for cooking, not eating. Because of their length, they were perfect for reaching into pots of hot water or oil. One reason was that before the Han dynasty, millet was predominant in North China, Korea and parts of Japan.
vbR7 TIL Hustler Magazine owner Larry Flynt survived an attack by a serial killer, but was paralyzed from the waist down. He pleaded for his attacker to not be executed, saying “a government that forbids killing among its citizens should not be in the business of killing people itself.