› added 12 years ago

105

TIL the Ottoman Empire enslaved children, educated them and gave them the most important positions in the empire.

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MLOW TIL that in 2011, China aired footage of an Air Force training exercise on China Central Television. They were actually just playing clips from the movie Top Gun.
KYrRG TIL there are three types of tears: basal, reflex, and psychic. Psychic tears, produced when we're sad, contain leucine enkephalin, a natural painkiller that helps us feel better.
J1J78 TIL: Calvin Coolidge, the 30th President of the United States, had a pet raccoon named Rebecca who freely roamed the White House.
9YPyQ TIL the defense mechanism of the American Opossum, "Playing Dead", is an involuntary action. The opossum will seize up, evacuate bowels, and excrete "dead thing" smell from a gland
Vy6p TIL a mule is not just the offspring of a donkey and a horse, but more specifically the offspring of a MALE donkey and a FEMALE horse. The other way around is much rarer: a ‘Hinny’