› added 11 years ago

86

TIL Icelanders can easily read old norse, dead language that was spoken in scandinavia 1000 years ago because written Icelandic has changed so little.

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glwX TIL that between 2003 and 2008, the US government spent over $15,000,000,000 on AIDS prevention in Africa, saving an estimated 1.1 million lives and reducing AIDS infection rates by 10%
kQrE TIL that in the late 1950s, China’s government began a campaign to kill millions of sparrows because they ate crops. As a result, there was a huge increase in crop-eating insects, which led to a severe famine.
RYOw TIL that There Is a Secret Apartment at the Top of the Eiffel Tower
VMv14 TIL by 2015, over 1,200 foreign workers died building stadiums for Qatar's 2022 FIFA World Cup. The Indian Government issued a press release "Considering the large size of our community, the number of deaths is quite normal."
wOm8 TIL the Queen of England has two mentally handicapped cousins, who were disowned by her family and essentially declared dead. One was buried in an unmarked grave, the other is still ignored.