› added 7 years ago

192

TIL that the late Rick Jolly, a British Army surgeon in the Falklands conflict, saved every life under his care, both British and Argentine. He was the only man decorated by both Britain and Argentina for his services in the war.

loP4a TIL of Dr. Norman Bethune, a Canadian who served as an army doctor in both the Spanish Civil War and Second Sino-Japanese War and invented the first mobile blood transfusion clinic. He is so beloved in China that his eulogy penned by Mao Zedong is required reading in Chinese textbooks.
r9Jo TIL Benjamin Franklin published a paper where he discovered that America’s population growth was so fast, it would surpass Britain in 100 years. This alarmed British leadership and was a factor in their oppression of the colonies.
Z8yda TIL A Card-Counter Named Bill Benter Developed An Algorithm For Betting On Hong Kong Horse Races That Earned Him Nearly A Billion Dollars
Lk9wP TIL that Heath Ledger initially did not take any of his roles seriously until he watched some of his films and realized that he would not want to see any of them. This inspired him to be more cautious in his choices, and he actually met with Nolan about playing Batman before being cast as the Joker.
gr0b4 TIL In 1910, a Spanish shepherd named José María Grimaldos López disappeared. Two men, León Sánchez and Gregorio Valero, confessed to his murder under torture and spent 12 years in prison. In 1926, Lopez returned home, alive and well. He had been living in a village 70 miles away the entire time.