› added 9 years ago

81

TIL that silent reading wasn’t common prior to the 4th century, and that Saint Ambrose was one of the first people to practise it.

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gMXVb TIL The wreck of Titanic's is disappearing at a rate that it's estimated to be completely gone in about 30 years. A microorganism called 'Halomonas titanicae' (also called the 'steel-munching bacteria') is slowly eating away the iron of the ships' wreck, causing its deterioration.
wndP TIL the Boeing factory in Seattle is so massive that rain clouds began to form inside the facility until a state-of-the-art air circulation system was installed
9LdQ TIL Canada’s elite special forces unit JTF2 once earned a US presidential unit citation whilst serving with Task Force K-Bar. Vice admiral Robert Harward, a US Navy SEAL in charge of the task force also stated that the JTF2 team under his command was his first choice for any direct action.
VB51D TIL a copy of Action Comics #1 (first appearance of Superman) was found in the wall of a house, during renovations in 2013. The comic ended up getting ripped when exchanged between the man and his wife’s aunt. The rip is estimated to have cost them $75k, with the comic selling for $175k.
LkyGQ TIL that Nicholas Flamel (the character from the first Harry Potter book who had the sorcerer’s/philosopher’s stone) was a real person who was thought to be an alchemist who really had discovered the stone and thereby achieved immortality.