TIL (Today I Learned)

There's a great sub-reddit called TIL about interesting, random and little known facts a user has become aware of. All must be properly sourced. It's one of my favorite things to read over coffee as I am a trivia geek, so I thought I'd start a thread here and share the ones I like best (others are welcome as well).

Here's the format we should all follow:

TIL: SHORT DESCRIPTION OF THE FACT
LINK TO THE SUPPORTING EVIDENCE.

I'll start with this one that I love:

TIL: The longest recorded sniper kill is from 2,475 meters. The bullet took 6 seconds to reach its target.
Sniper Craig Harrison

TIL: Only one member of the US congress has ever died in the line of duty - Leo J Ryan was assassinated trying to negotiate a resolution to what eventually became the Jonestown massacre.
Leo Ryan

If I spot one I like I'll post it, but it looks like we're reading the same TIL anyways lol.

TIL: The Catholic Church rejects the teaching of intelligent design.

it's chief Astronomer: "Intelligent design isn't science even though it pretends to be. If you want to teach it in schools, intelligent design should be taught when religion or cultural history is taught, not science."

and Cardinal Paul Poupard: "the faithful have the obligation to listen to that which secular modern science has to offer, just as we ask that knowledge of the faith be taken in consideration as an expert voice in humanity." He also warned of the permanent lesson we have learned from the Galileo affair, and that "we also know the dangers of a religion that severs its links with reason and becomes prey to fundamentalism."

interesting.