› added 2 years ago

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TIL that Edith Piaf was named after Edith Cavell, a British nurse in WW1 Belgium, who saved the lives of soldiers on both sides and helped 200 Allied men escape German-occupied Belgium before being shot by the Germans for treason, and who is now included in the Church of England Calendar of Saints.

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via reddit.com

kOkP5 TIL On Black Friday 2014, Cards Against Humanity was taken off shelves and replaced with a “Bullshit” box, for $6. Inside? “Literal feces, from an actual bull”, they said. The move - a protest against the 'buy anything' culture of Black Friday - led to 30,000 boxes of shit being sold in 2 hours flat
awkkM TIL that Vesna Vulović, a former flight attendant, holds the world record for surviving the longest free fall without a parachute (10.1 kilometers). Following the plane crash (of which she was the sole survivor), she was willing to resume working flights, however the airline gave her a desk job.
o8QL TIL illegal income, such as bribes, are considered taxable income. Authorities can use this to prosecute people with “legal immunity” (diplomats, UN workers, etc) as they are not immune to paying taxes.
16Rjd TIL that London's M25 motorway loop is broken at the River Thames, where it becomes the less restricted A282 in order to allow non-motorway traffic to use the Dartford Crossing
xaY7 TIL: When slaves were freed in the USA, some towns in the south would arrest young black men for not having a job and then sell them to corporations like US Steel as slaves for the duration of their sentence