› added 12 years ago

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TIL While US army officer Braxton Bragg held both the job as the company commander and the post quartermaster, he made a request as commander to the quartermaster and when he received the request as quartermaster, he denied it. He continued to argue back and forth with himself through letters.

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rNpZx TIL There’s a missing “Pope John XX” — because of confusion during the Middle Ages, the numbering skipped from John XIX directly to John XXI. There never was an official John XX!
jN6VN It depends on who you are and where you live. Humans thrive in Kuwait City, where average highs top 110° for several months a year. But extended runs of hot days and warm nights do lead to spikes in mortality, and climatologists expect an increasing number of heat waves in years to come.
KrgQ TIL over 30% of pharmaceuticals sold in developing countries are counterfeit. Roughly 50% of malaria drugs and up to 30% of antibiotics are counterfeit, mostly originating from India. Over 700,000 people die every year from consuming counterfeit drugs.
LkKa0 TIL during the early years of the Tour de France, guzzling alarming amounts of alcohol was the norm. Beer, wine, and brandy were considered safer to drink than water from questionable roadside wells or springs, and cyclists drank copiously.
JYXBj TIL in the mid-1960s three corporations, General Motors, Ford and Chrysler, controlled over 90% of the American new car market. GM alone had a nearly 50% market share at that point.