› added 11 years ago

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TIL during the Cuban missile crisis a Soviet Submarine came under attack from depth charges, the captain assumed WW3 had started and prepared to launch a nuclear weapon, his executive officer overruled him. It turned out the depth charges were training rounds being used to signal them to surface.

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joWv TIL a Baltimore woman locked a police officer in her basement when he tried searching her home without a warrant. She sued and won a settlement.
eEoE TIL Mexican shamans began to use Coca-Cola in their religious rituals to heal worshippers. When Pepsi discovered this, they offered commissions to shamans to use Pepsi instead. When Coke began paying too, rival religious groups were formed based on which soft drink they used.
NjeN TIL squirrels do not use sense of smell to find the hundreds of locations where they stored nuts for winters, instead they rely on spatial memory to remember location of each nut. A feat possible because of significantly larger hippocampus in rodent species.
9YRmQ TIL in the Mughal Empire, which ruled South Asia in the 16th-18th centuries, the living standard and per-capita income were higher than in Britain (the highest in Europe); the price of grain was far lower than in Britain; and in 1600, 15% lived in urban areas - in Britain in 1700 it was only 13%
0kyL [TIL] Current incumbent U.S. House of Representatives member, Alcee Hastings, formerly served as a U.S. District Judge and was successfully impeached on 17 counts of corruption and removed from office.