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TIL A Ukrainian student died when his chewing gum allegedly exploded in his mouth. Supposedly, he accidentally dipped his gum into an explosive instead of his packet of citric acid. “When his relatives entered the room they saw that the lower part of the young man’s face had been blown off.”

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via reddit.com

woADP TIL that Beluga Whales can mimic the pattern of human speech. One captive beluga, after overhearing divers using an underwater communication system, caused one of the divers to surface by imitating their order to get out of the water.
PrOZ TIL of Cunningham’s Law: “The best way to get the right answer on the Internet is not to ask a question, it’s to post the wrong answer.”
EkV0 TIL that the Soviet Army raped over 2,000,000 German women after defeating Nazi Germany - an estimated 240,000 died in connection with the rapes. Antony Beevor describes it as the “greatest phenomenon of mass rape in history”
ybDp TIL only 345 American deaths in the Spanish-American War were due to combat, 88% of all American deaths were due to disease. More than 62,000 people died from disease over the course of the war.
xVMab TIL about ‘death by misadventure’. In the UK this means a manner (not cause) of death attributed to risks undertaken voluntarily. Amy Winehouse is amongst the people who have died in this way.