› added 1 year ago

41

TIL a Thai prime minister jumped off a sinking warship and swam to safety. In the Manhattan rebellion, the Navy took the PM hostage aboard a ship. The Air Force and Army were mobilized to put down the rebels. Fierce fighting ensued and the ship with the PM onboard sunk. This was 6 years after WW2.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

BABk TIL that there is little evidence that Kim Jong-il and the North Korean media ever claimed that he made any kind of improbable golf score. Even North Korean officials say it is an urban myth.
wLRDY TIL The chief prosecutor for the United States in the Nuremberg Trials was Ben Ferencz, a 27 year old Jewish American lawyer who had never tried a case before. He investigated Nazi war crimes and went on to help establish the International Criminal Court. He's still alive today at 101.
GYm17 TIL: James Doohan, who played Star Trek's Scotty, was a lieutenant in WWII, was wounded during his participation in D-Day, and was once called the "craziest pilot in the Canadian Air Force."
PYGrG TIL a California HS teacher designed an experiment/demonstration to explain how the German population could accept the actions of the Nazi regime during WWII. It lasted 5 days and grew from just his class of 30 to over 200 students.
p8Xj8 TIL about the manzanilla de la muerte or "little apple of death", one of the most toxic trees in the world. The milky white sap present in every part of the tree is so toxic that standing beneath the tree during rain is enough to cause one's skin to blister.