› added 9 years ago

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TIL Minnesota’s program for “sexual psychopaths” has never fully released a patient in its 21-year history, essentially constituting a life sentence.

GJ91 TIL German poet Heinrich Heine left his entire fortune to his wife, but with one catch: she had to remarry “because then there will be at least one man to regret my death.”
webJ TIL that the region of Patagonia in South America originates from the Spanish term “patagón”, roughly translating to ‘giants’, given to natives by Magellan when encountering the local tribe of Tehuelches along the coast. Archaeologists have determined their average male height to have been 6’10”.
paXb TIL in WWII, a dog named Gander fended off two Japanese ambushes. When they came back again, with a grenade this time, Gander picked it up and charged back at them, killing more Japanese, saving his wounded team, going out in a blaze of glory and earning a posthumous medal.
oBJaA TIL that the Mexican government once opened fire on peaceful protestors. An estimated 300-400 civilians laid dead in the streets. In 2000, official government documents were released that showed the government employed snipers dressed as protestors to provoke the officers into shooting.
b6lx0 TIL that the Great Vowel Shift between 1400-1700 was a series of pronunciation changes in English. With that many words froze with spelling and pronunciations not matching. This is why some English vowels are a mess with words like "meat" and "meet" being spelt differently but pronounced the same.