› added 12 years ago

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TIL during WW2, trained elephants at a zoo in Tokyo were starved to death. Throughout the ordeal, they repeatedly performed their tricks in fruitless attempts to get fed.

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pYYQp TIL that agriculture workers in the U.S. face a variety of mental health issues, including a nearly-doubled chance of suicide compared to the general working population.
YpJWx TIL that in WWII, John T. "Mike" Wolf joined the navy to become a pilot. Even though he had poor eyesight, he passed his physical when the doctor got distracted and forgot to give him the eye exam. Lt. Wolf went on to become a highly decorated fighter pilot ace, shooting down 7 Japanese planes.
pYyLA TIL that the first documented infringement of the Volstead Act was less than an hour after it came into force, when $100,000 worth of whisky was stolen by armed men.
b9KGa TIL Humans will walk in circles when lost unless there is some sort of external reference point.
1aNlO TIL that Nellie Bly, the author of the famous exposé Ten Days in a Mad-House, wrote 11 novels that were thought to be lost to time until they were rediscovered and published earlier this year.