› added 7 years ago

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TIL Splenda, the common household sweetener, was first discovered in 1976, when a scientist at a British college accidently misheard directions. He tasted a substance instead of testing it, and from then on the sweet taste of Splenda was discovered.

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epvm5 TIL Perry Martin & his cat Thomas Jr. (T2 for short) became separated after Hurricane Jeanne struck in 2004. Martin assumed T2 had been killed on a nearby highway, however in 2018 they were reunited after T2 was brought to a veterinarian, who found T2's microchip which led to Martin being contacted.
Y1Vd TIL that most mermaid “sightings” were most likely manatees, dugongs, or Steller’s sea cows. In fact, Christopher Columbus spotted 3 manatees near the Dominican Republic and would later write that mermaids are “not half as beautiful as they are painted.”
bdbj TIL a think tank at Oxford University believes that the prison industry may begin exploring psychoactive drugs that elongate the perception of time, either reducing actual incarceration times or making sentences for heinous crimes feel like an eternity.
X6yX TIL that Hitler planned to rebuild Berlin after the war into a neo-roman cosmopolitan city. One state building, the Volkeshalle was to be so massive, that it could rain inside during events due to 150K peoples’ perspiration and breath.
1aR4P TIL that in 1935 the Nazis held a competition in which baby pictures were sent in and the "most beautiful Aryan baby" was chosen by Joseph Goebbels. The baby they picked, and used in propaganda for years, was actually Jewish; the photo had been sent in to make the Nazi party look ridiculous.