› added 12 years ago

171

TIL: Japan has a Coffee Spa

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via reddit.com

WaZA TIL that parades are a means of political combat in Northern Ireland. Unionists and nationalists hold hundreds of competing parades that may cause violence if they enter territory belonging to “the other side”. The government often bans/reroutes parades to avoid problems.
GYmDg TIL in 1945 the Soviet Union invited top leaders of the Polish government in exile to Moscow under a promise of safe conduct to participate in talks on the post war government. Upon their arrival, they were instead arrested, tortured, and convicted in subsequent show trials as German collaborators
JXe4 TIL The Chappaquiddick incident, in which Senator Ted Kennedy accidentally drove his car off a bridge, abandoning his passenger who drowned. He did not report the incident for nine hours
OJ1R TIL that when astronaut Ron McNair was 9 he attempted to check out books from a segregated library the librarian called the cops and his mother. The police however supported his right to read.
a8eoL TIL that despite being leader of the CDU and serving as the Chancellor of Germany, Ludwig Erhard was never officially a member of the CDU, a fact that was not made public until decades later.