› added 7 years ago

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TIL A “Sherpa” isnt a porter on mountain-climbing expedition but an ethnic group living mostly in Nepal, Tibet and Bhutan. Sherpas all have the surname “Sherpa”. The name was mistakenly given to them by Nepalese census takers who didn’t realize that last names are not a part of Sherpa culture.

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JYvEB TIL Atatürk, the founder of Turkey, was a critic of the Armenean genocide that Turkey today denies, writing "millions of our Christian subjects who were ruthlessly driven en masse from their homes and massacre".
PYw6w TIL After Peter the Great mandated that all officers in his army must have started their career as privates, noble families began to register newborn boys as privates. First reporting for service at the age of 15, the boys were then promoted through seniority to junior lieutenant or equivalent rank
rR45o TIL the Michelin Man’s ‘real’ name is Bibendum, and the reason he’s white is because he was created before carbon was added as a preservative and a strengthener to the basic rubber material. Before 1912, tyres were a gray-white or light and translucent-beige colour.
VM16B TIL: In 1971, Nike paid a college student $35 for the "swoosh" logo she designed.
xdk1 TIL In 1975, a man returned two used tires to a Nordstrom department store. Nordstrom has never sold tires but, in what has become one of the most famous and enduring customer service legends, the store refunded his money because the customer is always right.