› added 3 months ago

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TIL that the Treaty of Tilsit (1807) between Napoleon and Tsar Alexander I was signed on a raft anchored in the middle of the Neman River — because neither leader wanted to appear submissive by stepping foot on the other’s territory.

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KgZa TIL “The Lion Sleeps Tonight” is about Shaka The Lion, a warrior king of the Zulus who resisted the armies of European colonizers. The song claims that he is not dead, only sleeping, and he will one day return to lead his oppressed people to freedom.
xVa1k TIL Dinosaur names like "Triceratops", "Stegosaurus" and "Velociraptor" are just the name of the Genus they belong to, and the actual species' names are "Triceratops prorsus", "Stegosaurus stenops" and "Velociraptor mongoliensis".
8eRd4 TIL award-winning writer William Goldman would make up bedtime stories for his daughters (4yo & 7yo). One of them wanted tales of princesses, the other wanted brides, so he combined them. These stories became his next book: "The Princess Bride"
gMmlD TIL the tallest wave ever recorded reached 524m when it struck land. This is the height of building 1 of the World Trade Center (including the antenna)
p87dQ TIL that in the 1500s a Greek Protestant adventurer named Iacob Heraclid went around Europe pretending to be royalty and managed to make himself Prince of Moldavia for two years before being killed.