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TIL that upon reading the Serbian response to the Austro-Hungarian ultimatum, Kaiser Wilhelm II said that there was no need for war, however, Austria-Hungary, which previously got a German Blank Check, declared war on Serbia the same day

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vPv9x TIL An estimated 350,000 Chinese visited North Korean in 2019 and the demographic visiting Pyongyang are between the age of 45 to 60. Many Chinese tell their guides that it is just like how they used to live
QoxE TIL that the original ketchup was a fish sauce and based on the Chinese word for that sauce, and it turns out that in Chinese, “ketchup” also happens to be a homophone for “tomato sauce”, which is what ketchup became.
JL4l TIL that in ancient Rome, one of the most common cooking ingredients was called “laser”, from the silphium plant. It does not exist today: it was so delicious that it was harvested to extinction from its natural habitat in what is now Libya. We think that it probably tasted something like garlic.
VMY98 TIL The first Roman fire brigade was created to be very lucrative. Arriving at the scene the fire fighters did nothing while a price was negotiated. Failing to reach a deal, the structure was allowed to burn to the ground after which an offer was made to purchase it for a fraction of its value.
xV5kg TIL of the “perfect murder.” In 1929, man was found shot to death in his locked apartment in New York. The door and windows had been locked from the inside. No gun or fingerprints were found inside the apartment.