› added 8 years ago

78

TIL that raccoons are called “washing bears” in many languages.

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LlZ9 TIL that there is a law in the UK that states all documents must be inanimate objects, after the case of the live cow used as a cheque
yVGOJ TIL in 1836, when Nikolai Gogol presented his play The Government Inspector, focusing on a corrupt mayor tries to cover up his own corruption and bribe a visitor he mistakes as an inspector, the tsar personally overruled the censors and had it staged as a warning to officials.
dDKLQ TIL In 1944, the USS Buckley engaged U-Boat U-66 in the Atlantic. The ship rammed the submarine and got stuck, and their respective crews engaged in hand to hand combat, using shell casings and coffee mugs as weapons.
loZLV TIL the "Austrian Association of Hiking, Sports and Society" was a CIA-funded paramiltary group created to engage in guerilla warfare in case of a Soviet invasion in Austria
LabP TIL, aged 12, Margaret Thatcher saved pocket money to help pay for a Jewish girl escaping Nazi Germany, whom her family provided sanctuary during WWII