› added 6 years ago

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TIL in the civil war, the commander of the Union "lightning brigade" personally took out a loan to buy his soldiers advanced new repeating rifles because the government would not supply them. Using the firepower advantage afforded by the new rifles, his brigade proved extremely effective in combat.

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x6Vo7 TIL about Tojo, the monkey mascot of a WW2 US Air Force crew who crash landed in neutral Ireland, and who became such a local hero that he was given a full Irish wake and military funeral after he succumbed to a few days of solid Irish hospitality
JYDwm TIL there is a zone in France that has been restricted for 100 years because of events that took place during World War I.
yJ08 TIL in 1985 US Marshalls Service once sent “invitations” to the last known addresses of 5000 known fugitives saying they had won free tickets to a Redskins - Bengals game. When the “winners” arrived to pick up their tickets they were arrested by Deputy Marshals and DC Metropolitan Police officers.
KYVER TIL Photuris beetles are the femme fatale of lightning bugs, refers to a behavior engaging in aggressive mimicry, imitating the light signals of other firefly species females to attract mates but Photuris beetles use it to attract, kill and eat the unsuspecting males of those other species.
4P96 TIL forensic scientists have said that around 80% of all British banknotes contain traces of drugs. A 1999 study found even higher levels of contamination in the London area; of 500 notes tested, only four had no traces of cocaine.