› added 5 years ago

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TIL that sending a cruel leader with a group of incompetent men on a dangerous, nearly impossible mission, in the hope they would not return, was likely the main reason for the spanish expedition to find "El Dorado" in 1560.

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7ApZ TIL in Philadelphia there are such things as “courtesy cards” which are often given to the friends or family of a police officer and they allow the user to get out of minor offenses such as speeding or running a stop sign if given to a police officer while they’re writing the ticket.
BRak TIL that Brazil participated in WW2, the only independent South American country to do so. The 25,000-troop Brazilian Expeditionary Force worked alongside the Allies, and managed to take 20,573 Axis prisoners, consisting of two generals, 892 officers and 19,679 other ranks.
x670B TIL that Violet Jessop, a courageous ship's nurse from the 20th century, miraculously survived three disastrous shipwrecks: the Olympic in 1911, the Titanic in 1912, and the Britannic in 1916.
VMgoD TIL that Archimedes estimated the value of pi with a polygon in a circle in a polygon. He made the diameter of the circle 1, so the circumference was pi. With the circle's diameter, he found the perimeters of the polygons. Therefore, the value of pi (the circle's circumference) is in between them.
4Xl0o TIL Canada has an older 'continually running' monarchy than the UK, having been initially established in the 16th Century. While being under British Rule, French Rule, and ultimately an independent monarchy, there has not been a time since Canada has not had a monarch.