› added 1 year ago

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TIL that, inspired by the Maginot Line in France, the British built a defensive network in Hong Kong. Called the Gin Drinkers Line or Oriental Maginot Line, it was designed to hold off a Japanese invasion for six months. Hit by understaffing and a malaria outbreak, it only lasted two days.

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XjRX TIL that Jack, a baboon operated the railway signals for a South African railway operator under supervision of his paraplegic owner. He was paid with half-bottle of beer each week and never made a mistake in nine years of employment.
nWVMb TIL Steven Spielberg was not present for the shooting of the final scene in Jaws because he thought the film crew was going to throw him in the water once the shoot ended. Since then, it has become a tradition for him to be absent when the final scene of one of his films is being shot.
er76 TIL after an Indian king was insulted for his ethnicity by an employee while visiting a Rolls-Royce showroom in London he ordered that 6 luxury cars be bought and sent back to India to be used as garbage collectors throughout the city, damaging Rolls-Royce’s reputation and profits.
x6BoD TIL that lower testosterone has been scientifically proven to be associated with leftists beliefs
gMlGW TIL that a group of striking coal workers in West Virginia had leftover WWI chemical bombs dropped on them by the US government during the 1921 Battle of Blair Mountain, the largest labor uprising in American history.