› added 4 months ago

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TIL that one of the strategies proposed for raising the Titanic before it fully deteriorates was to fill it full of ping pong balls.

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via reddit.com

vPZK7 TIL: Maryland was a slave state that sided with the Union, but in 1864, they actually had a referendum to abolish slavery. It narrowly failed - until the absentee ballots from the soldiers at the front came in, at which point it overwhelmingly succeeded.
4Xy1J TIL that there was a "Human Zoo" exhibit at the 1958 Brussels World’s Fair where the Ministry of Colonies built a Congolese exhibit to demonstrate their claim to have "civilized" the "primitive Africans."
Y76Y7 TIL that "Harambee" is the official motto of Kenya
rOlx TIL that German Gen. Erwin Rommel earned mutual respect with the Allies in WWII from his genius and humane tactics. He refused to kill Jewish prisoners, paid POWs for their labor, punished troops for killing civilians, fought alongside his troops, and even plotted to remove Hitler from power.
N7Ke6 TIL in 2009 a UK and French nuclear ballistic submarines collided with each other as neither of them knew the other sub was nearby. They were submerged and running silent but were moving slowly enough that though the ships were damaged, there were no injuries nor radioactive releases.