› added 4 years ago

252

TIL that in 1942, after 2 U.S. military ships sank off the coast of Newfoundland the citizens of a small colonial town that recieved the surviors thought the African-Americans aboard had been covered in oil, and tried to scrub them clean.

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via reddit.com

W0RB TIL that former Australian rules footballer Garry Hocking legally changed his name to “Whiskas” so that commentators would have to say the name of the product every time during a game, being the first of its kind in marketing.
J1dnl TIL pigment residues found on the Great Sphinx suggest it was painted with a red face and a yellow and blue body.
6KPl TIL that the inventor of the Kaiten manned suicide torpedo, Lt. Hiroshi Kuroki, was killed during one of the first training missions. When his torpedo was raised, a note was found that both sent respects to his family, and detailed the cause of the accident and how to fix the defect.
d88DE TIL US “government cheese” was created to maintain the price of dairy when dairy industry subsidies artificially increased the supply of milk and created a surplus that was then converted into cheese, butter, or dehydrated powder. The cheese was stored in over 150 warehouses across 35 states.
yADv TIL that not everyone buries or cremates their dead. Zoroastrians built open roofed towers to house the bodies of the dead called “Towers of Silence”. These towers were open to carrion birds so that the corpses could be consumed.