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TIL that in 2005, France passed a law that required teachers to speak about the positive role of French Colonial Empire. It was repealed a year later through the intervention of the Constitutional Council.

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Oo7YR TIL Number 4 (四; accounting 肆; pinyin sì) is considered an unlucky number in Chinese because it is nearly homophonous to the word "death" (死 pinyin sǐ). Due to that, many numbered product lines skip the "4": e.g., Nokia cell phones (there is no series beginning with a 4), Palm PDAs, Canon PowerShot
X07kj TIL the Black Death contributed greatly to the rise of the British Pub and pub culture. Thanks to the plague, scarcity of labor greatly improved the standard of living for peasants, who in turn spent their extra money on beer.
NXBXJ TIL a plane once crashed because a passenger smuggled a crocodile on board
ZOdR TIL despite being dead, Agatha Christie was able to save a life in 1977 when a nurse who’d read her book ‘The Pale Horse’ that described thallium poisoning so well that the nurse could diagnose a baby the doctors couldn’t. Thallium was found in the baby, and she was given treatments, saving her
jN5pv TIL Count Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, the main suspect in the murder of his whole family (four kids, wife and the two family dogs), disappeared right after the family's body were found in 2011 and hasn't been seen ever since.