› added 12 years ago

75

TIL that a pitbull rose to the rank of Sergeant through combat alone during WWI and was given numerous awards for his service.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

mxlKR TIL Japanese embassy in Paris has a 24 hour helpline, for their citizens who didn’t find Paris as expected.
8e9EZ TIL The Sphinx was buried in sand around 400 years after it was built, roughly 4500 years ago. In 1400 BC, Thutmose IV attempted to unbury the Sphinx but only managed to uncover its front paws. It would not be fully unburied until 1887 AD, meaning the Sphinx was mostly buried for nearly 4000 years.
wPwo TIL that there is a Bollywood remake of Fight Club that did away with most of the plot, replacing it with elaborate musical sequences.
Wk1wd TIL that bees will not build in a gap that is very specifically 6-9 mm in width (but they WILL build in larger or smaller spaces). This discovery, called "bee space", made modern beehives with removeable "frames" for honeycomb possible; otherwise, the bees would just cement everything together.
P14xG TIL that inhabitants of Machu Picchu were immigrants from different parts of the Inca empire, as bone damage indicate infection of parasites indigenous to different areas of Peru.