› added 6 years ago

109

TIL that Pythagoras cannot have been the first to discover the Pythagorean theorem because it was known and used by the Babylonians over a millennium before he was born. Classical historians dispute whether he himself ever actually made any significant contributions to the field of mathematics.

kODm1 TIL that more than 50% of the oxygen produced on earth is from photosynthesizers in the ocean, such as Prochlorococcus and phytoplankton.
e0x4J TIL The Queen of England has only ever broken protocol for The Changing Of The Guard once. On 9/12/2001, the day after The September 11th attacks on The World Trade Center in The United States. Instead of The English National Anthem being played during the change, it was the US National Anthem.
Ookla TIL that the usage of fork had caused quite a scandal. St. Peter Damian once said "God in his wisdom has provided man with natural forks – his fingers. Therefore it is an insult to Him to substitute artificial metallic forks for them when eating."
pY4PN TIL of Dennis Johnson a 3x NBA Champion who measured just 5'9" in High School and only played "a minute or two each game", after working several odd jobs over the summer, he grew to be 6'3. Johnson was offered a scholarship to LAHC shortly after coach Jim White witnessed Johnson playing Street Ball.
pKMA TIL that Seattle changed Columbus day to indigenous peoples day in 2014 to acknowledge that native Americans were living in the Americas long before Columbus “discovered” it.