› added 6 years ago

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TIL Robert Frost wrote “The Road Not Taken” to tease his chronically indecisive friend, Edward Thomas, who misinterpreted the meaning and enlisted in the military shortly thereafter, only to be killed two years later in WWI

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VMwB4 TIL that after tourists to a Cotswold village of England complained about a parked yellow car "ruining their picture perfect photos", and even vandalising said car, hundreds of drivers across the country took their own yellow cars down to the village in defiance
NpXE TIL A British regiment were so sick of hearing the French sing the same song on the battlefield that one morning they just decided to march towards the French barracks playing the song. The French thought they were receiving reinforcements and let them in.
N7XAe TIL Genghis Khan was a tengrist, but was religiously tolerant and interested in learning philosophical and moral lessons from other religions. He consulted Buddhist monks, Muslims, Christian missionaries, and the Taoist monk Qiu Chuji.
X0nl6 TIL about Adnan Khashoggi. A Saudi businessman, arms dealer implicated in the Iran–Contra affair, uncle to Dodi Fayed (killed in a car accident with Diana, Princess of Wales), and uncle to Jamal Khashoggi (assassinated in the Saudi Arabian consulate in Istanbul).
xpL0 TIL that a few years ago, Bahrain’s oppressed and overcrowded Shiite majority began using Google Earth to view palaces and other estates that make up 95% of the country. As these images churned up discontent, the government blocked Google Earth.