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TIL of the Laha Massacre where Japanese forces picked 300 Australian and Dutch POWs at random in February 1942 and executed them in revenge for the sinking of a Japanese ship. Surviving crew members of the sunken ship took part in the killings.

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BkJb TIL during the Black Plague, some plague doctors were officially commissioned and paid to walk the streets and differentiate between the living and the dead by poking bodies with sticks.
g4v4 TIL Coca Cola was invented by morphine addicted Confederate Colonel John Pemberton as a morphine substitute and its original ingredients include coca leaves which is the raw material for manufacture of cocaine.
o4eY TIL slot machines have pictures of various fruits because they used to dispense various flavors of gum instead of coins.
Lg1Z TIL during the 2009 elections Michael Bloomberg, Mayor of NYC, changed long standing state laws just so he could serve a 3rd term.
4XD6a TIL that shortly after World War 2, imperial Japanese soldiers fought in the Indonesian Revolution on the side of the British. One of them was even recommended for a Distinguished Service medal