› added 5 years ago

131

TIL Memorial Day was started by former slaves as Decoration Day during the Civil War to celebrate emancipation and those who fought for justice. During the Jim Crow era, the holiday was whitewashed into the apolitical Memorial Day to erase the "divisive" issues of slavery and Black citizenship

Read more liberationnews.org

via reddit.com

P1gGZ TIL in WW2, the US made 1.5 million Purple Heart medals because so many casualties were expected from the invasion of Japan. As this never happened, they are still using that stockpile of medals.
jNlQa TIL that Austrian Emperor Franz Joseph suffered immense personal tragedies, execution of his brother Maximilian in Mexico, suicide of his son and heir, murder of his wife and finally assassination of his nephew Archduke Franz Ferdinand in 1914 that lead to WW1 and destruction of Habsburg Empire
R7Blw TIL In the movie Close Encounters of the Third Kind (1977) the ship Cotopaxi was discovered in the Gobi desert, presumably left there by Aliens. At that time the ship was believed to have been lost in the Bermuda Triangle in 1925, but was discovered in 1985 in Florida, and not verified until 2020.
78A9X TIL that electric cars are not a modern invention. In the early 1900s, electric vehicles accounted for about a third of all vehicles on the road and were popular due to their quiet and clean operation, especially in urban areas.
oJjL TIL “47 Ronin” Starring Keanu Reeves was the biggest box office flop in history. Losing over $149 million, enough to put universal deep in the red in 2013.