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TIL that the fluffy silk in milkweed was used to insulate naval life preservers and even aviation suits during World War II. The Department of Agriculture rallied support for the troops with the slogan, “pick a weed, save a life.”

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wooV7 Til that: When the Butzke family fled Austria in 1940, they sewed valuables into their son's teddy bear. When German soldiers tried to take the bear, the boy screamed until it was thrown back at him. The valuables helped them start a new life when they immigrated to the U.S
77VX TIL Petrichor is the earthy scent produced when rain falls on dry soil. The scent is from water interacting with plant oils.
GYBoj TIL that a week after Jim Croce died at 30 in a plane crash, his widow received a letter from him promising to stop performing, get a master's degree, and write short stories and movie scripts. It ended "it's the first sixty years that count and I've got 30 left."
Zk9a TIL tasers shoot confetti with tiny serial numbers printed on it so that it can be linked to the person who fired it.
gMXO4 TIL in the 1900s, over 60,000 US citizens were forcefully sterilized under the reasoning that they were disabled or mentally unfit to birth America’s future generations.