› added 6 years ago

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TIL that a massive solar flare in 2012 barely missed earth (by mere days). Had it hit, the power grid would likely have failed, causing unprecedented devastation. Scientists recently determined that it was of similar magnitude as the 1859 Carrington Event.

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via reddit.com

m1WOv TIL Residential lawns in the US use up about 9 billion gallons of water every day
oBGYL TIL Ainu people are indigenous to Hokkaidō, Japan. They have their own religion, language, and culture. Now fewer than 100 speak the language.
wLY17 TIL the "bacon and eggs" All-American breakfast idea was a PR marketing campaign by Edward L. Bernays (the nephew of Sigmund Freud) for a bacon company in the 1920's.
p8EVp TIL that Emily Donelson was only 21 years old when she became the de facto First Lady of the United States. She was replaced in the role during Andrew Jackson's second term, making her the "first First Lady" of the Jackson administration.
9x4r TIL from a declassified US DOD document titled ‘Operation Northwoods’ that the DOD wanted to blow up a US Navy ship, down a civilian airliner, crash John Glenn’s spaceship, fake an attack on Guantanamo and stage communist terror campaigns to provide justification for a US military invasion of Cuba.