› added 4 years ago

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TIL that prior to the development of modern guns, soldiers needed to use their teeth to open cartridges, so militaries introduced requirements about the minimum number of the teeth of their soldiers. In some cases soldiers would pull or damage their teeth in order to avoid military conscription.

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via reddit.com

adbM TIL that, after his disabled owner was struck by a car, ‘Endal’ the service dog pulled his unconscious owner into the recovery position, retrieved his mobile phone from beneath the car, fetched a blanket and covered him, and then ran to a nearby hotel to obtain help
JYa84 TIL that the word "sabotage" comes from the French word for clog; "sabot". When looms were industrialised, redundant workers would throw their clogs into the machinery and this became known as sabotage. It is theorised that this is also the origin of the phrase "clogged up".
PYOrE TIL of Catherine Yasinchuk, a Ukrainian woman who was wrongly institutionalized for 48 years in a Philadelphia asylum because she did not speak English and no one understood her. She’d come to the USA alone at the age of 15, and suffered a nervous breakdown after losing her husband and baby.
DKnD TIL that Douglas Adams, author of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy, once wore a rhino costume while climbing Mount Kilimanjaro to raise money for a charity to save endangered rhinos.
grV89 TIL that in 2012, Maryland manufactured and distributed a new license plate to celebrate the War of 1812. 800,000 of these plates include a link that promotes a Filipino gambling site.