› added 13 years ago

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TIL 120 years ago a man dug up his daughters grave believing she was a vampire. He cut out her heart, burned it & made tea with the ashes. He forced his sick son to drink it, thinking it’d cure his son of becoming a vampire.

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Yp5Lx TIL The Battle of Adwa in 1896 saw Ethiopia win a decisive victory against Italy, securing Ethiopia's independence for another 40 years. In that period Ethiopia was hailed as the only surviving African state to defeat a European colonial power in open battle
8ewMP TIL there is a gene called GPR75 which is found in some humans, which causes them to gain 44% less weight than people without the gene on the same diet
j6p6n TIL the first business idea of Steve Wozniak and Steve Jobs wasn't Apple but a business called Blue Box. Long distance calls in the 70s was very expensive so they made an illegal device that would trick phone companies into connecting you to phone numbers overseas.
5YZoB TIL nobody really knows how nukes would be launched by the UK. The PM holds the sole power to launch a nuke. However, constitutionally, they should discuss the decision with the cabinet first. They should also discuss it with the monarch, due to the monarch being the head of the armed forces.
yQNga TIL that the first shipping container was invented and patented in 1956 by the owner of an American trucking fleet, which reduced his shipping cost from $5.86 to .16 cents, paving the way for globalisation and mass intercontinental shipping.