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TIL of Peter Badcoe, an Australian infantry officer fighting in the Vietnam War who received the Victoria Cross from Australia; then a Purple heart, Silver Star and Air Medal by the USA; and then a National Order plus at least two Crosses of Gallantry by the Republic of South Vietnam.

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via reddit.com

e8DD TIL in a letter called the Ashtiname, Muhammad called on followers of Islam to protect Christians “in any place they may dwell.” Violators would be regarded as having “despised [God’s] Religion, and made himself deserving of His Curse, whether he is a Sultan or any other believer of Islam.”
vPRL TIL that the largest pyramid in the world was just recently found in 2009. it was covered by the canopy of a mayan jungle.
x0G7 TIL the Window of the World theme park in China has a cremation simulator. Visitors climb into coffins & are carried on a conveyor belt with heat & light projections simulating the effects of a real funeral-home incinerator. It hopes to enlighten people on death & help them make better life choices.
16gOW TIL Orson Welles wore a fake nose in most of his films because he felt his nose was too small. Welles sometimes fashioned and applied his own prosthetic and according to some had a personal display of his noses.
R5yj7 TIL that novelist Cormac McCarthy was very poor in his early career, despite wide critical acclaim. He and his girlfriend bathed in lakes, ate only beans, and refused offers of $2,000 ($16,700 today) to speak at universities about his work because “everything he had to say was there on the page.”