› added 7 years ago

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TIL of the 1914 Christmas Truce. After months of fighting, German and Allied artillery fell silent, and Christmas carols filled the air instead. Both parties got out of their trenches and exchanged food, and held friendly football matches.

mxWnR TIL about the nilgai or blue bull (Boselaphus tragocamelus). It is native to the Indian subcontinent, and it is the largest Asian antelope and can weigh up to 635lbs/288kg. Its name comes from Hindi: nil is blue and gai is cow. It is considered sacred by followers of Hindu.
8a0PZ TIL if you want to support local restaurants, don't use 3rd-party delivery services. Call the restaurant directly to order so they aren't hit with all the fees Uber and Doordash charge them.
DQmlp TIL of Operation Mount Hope III, where the U.S. 160th Special Operations Aviation Regiment captured an abandoned Soviet Mi-25 Hind D attack helicopter from an abandoned airfield in Libya by hoisting it out with a Chinook and flying 1,700km both ways. They were completely undetected in their mission.
LQdam TIL Yuri Gagarin was chosen for the first spaceflight instead of Gherman Titov because the first Soviet flight was to be one orbit and ~110 minutes, and the second flight 17.5 orbits and 25 hours. Someone with a stronger body was needed for the longer flight, thus the "weaker" Gagarin was chosen.
b9gB9 TIL that groundbreaking new cancer therapies ramp up the body's own immune system to eradicate cancer cells. One promising immunotherapy method, known as CAR T, has shown incredible success in clinical trials with children when most other options have failed.