› added 5 years ago

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TIL during WWII US Navy seamen would drain the fuel from torpedos (180-proof grain alcohol) then filter it though bread to make a cocktail called torpedo juice.

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e0ypk TIL a lord mayor of London had a glass box built so that he would not catch the plague.
woo68 TIL that all pet Syrian hamsters are descended from a single brother and sister captured in 1930.
Bragr TIL The 1904 Olympic Marathon included a runner who was poisoned by his trainers, a runner who was chased a mile off-course by dogs and a runner who ate rotten apples, had to lie down for a bit and still finished fourth.
dLeK TIL of Patrick Combs, a man who cashed an obviously fake joke check for $95,000. The bank didn’t notice and gave him the money.
Vrvk TIL that the Nazi’s were staunch animal rights activists with major efforts to limit hunting and general animal cruelty. Göring, in particular, was a professed animal lover who proclaimed bans on both vivisection(Nazi Germany was the first country in the world to do so) and the shoeing of horses.