› added 1 year ago

52

TIL that Nitrogen Mustard a chemical weapon, led to breakthroughs in chemotherapy. This is because of its ability to prevent cell duplication.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

JYbpv TIL the second version of the confederate flag was almost entirely white to symbolize the "Heaven-ordained supremacy of the white man over the inferior or colored race". The design was changed after confederate soldiers complained that it looked too much like the white flag of defeat.
XGvD TIL that after losing the Civil War, 10,000 Confederates fled the United States and founded the city of Americana, Brazil, where they rebuilt their plantations and still owned slaves.
gr5wL TIL that the Oʻahu ʻakialoa bird - a species of Hawaiian honey creeper- went extinct because of a strain of bird flu that was passed by mosquitoes.
Nkn8 TIL that once Iron begins to form in the heart of a giant star it only has seconds to live before it explodes into a supernova and most of the heavier elements such as Gold and Silver are formed in the resulting explosion.
XENd8 TIL that PEZ candy was invented in Austria, and the three letters are the first, middle and last letters of PffeffErminZ, the German/Austrian word for peppermint.