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TIL in 1856, the Xhosa people followed a prophecy from a 15yo girl telling them to destroy all their cattle and crops

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OokRL TIL during China’s Ming Dynasty, powdered smallpox scabs were blown up the noses of the healthy. The patients would then develop a mild case of the disease, & from then on were immune to it. Although the technique had a 0.5–2.0% mortality rate, it was better than the diseases 20–30% mortality rate.
Obrg TIL that in 1346 during the siege of Kafa, Mongol forces used plague victims as biological weapons, by flinging the infected corpses over castle walls with catapults. It worked.
ADOgn TIL that 'meme' the word was coined by Richard Dawkins in his book The Selfish Gene to explain how cultural information spreads. The internet meme is just a subset of the same concept.
OoLye TIL there is a province in Belgium called "Luxembourg" that is 70% larger than the actual country of Luxembourg.
nW5Pr TIL In 2014 a Jamaican phone scammer threatened to kill a retired American man named William Webster when he wouldn't fall for the scam. The scammer didn't know Webster was the former director of both the FBI and CIA. He was arrested when he flew to NYC in 2017 and sentenced to 6 years in prison.