› added 5 years ago

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TIL when two soldiers in the Canadian Airborne beat a Somalian teenager to death, and then their superiors attempted to cover it up, the Canadian government disbanded the entire Canadian Airborne

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MeGXV TIL when Coca-Cola withdrew from India in 1997, Ramesh Chauhan developed his own softdrink formula from scratch, experimenting with ingredients such as cinnamon, cardamom, and nutmeg, naming it Thums up. In 1993 it had 85% market share when Coca-Cola re-entered India and bought it for $60 million.
JYKy4 TIL Germany started using jury trials the Middle Ages, but a constitutional crisis in 1924 led to an emergency decree abolishing juries and replacing them with the mixed system of judges and lay judges that is still used today.
v15Lr TIL Napoleon's worst defeat may not have been Waterloo. In a scene worthy of Monty Python, Napoleon was forced to flee a swarm of rabbits that they were supposed to be hunting. The organizers of the hunt mistakenly purchased domesticated rabbits; the bunnies "attacked" the party expecting treats.
OGxn4 TIL that Tyrian purple or royal purple is a redish-purple natural dye. It is secreted by several species of predatory sea snails. Twelve thousand snails yield no more than 1.4 g of pure dye, enough to colour only the trim of a single garment.
ADadB TIL of Wataru Misaka, a Japanese-American drafted into the New York Knicks in 1947. He was the first non-Caucasian professional basketball player, and the first African-American player didn’t play in the NBA until three years later.