› added 6 years ago

70

TIL Aimo Koivunen, a Finnish soldier who during WW2, over-dosed on amphetamines, lost his squad, laid in a ditch for a week after stepping on a land mine, then travelled over 250 miles on skis, was found alive only weighing 94 pounds. He went on to live another 45 years.

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DnKV TIL that in 2011, in response to a bill prohibiting Tennessee school teachers from alluding to homosexuality, George Takei offered his last name in lieu of the word “gay”, e.g. “Takei Marriage”, “Takei Pride Parade”, and even “That’s so Takei”
v1E8 TIL that in 1985 Philadelphia, The Police used a chopper to drop a self-made bomb on top of a highrise fortified by cultists, fired more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition and shot at cultists trying to escape from the house. The fire they tried to escape, started by the police, destroyed 65 houses.
OojK6 TIL potatoes have 48 chromosomes, instead of 46.
9Yg7D TIL in Japan, beer cans have braille text on them so blind people do not mistake them for soft drinks
7rlpx TIL that Christmas as we know it (family gatherings, seasonal food & drink, games, festive generosity, even saying Merry Christmas), is largely the result of Charles Dickens' A Christmas Carol. Before 1843 Christmas was associated w/ countryside peasant revelry & disconnected from modern city life.