› added 8 years ago

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TIL - The Navy has a goat as a mascot because goats were common on ships to serve as a source of food and leather. Cows were too big and became dangerous in rough seas. Goats can also swim.

OGQ6g TIL Habituating Mountain Gorillas to get used to humans is a complex process. Initially aggressive, they start to recognize familiar humans. To get gorillas to become comfortable around white tourists, African rangers wear paper masks so they eventually won't run away from white people
mR4Y TIL that the day after German WW1 ace Oswald Boelcke died from a crash landing following a midair collision, British pilots dropped a wreath at his airbase which read: “To the memory of Captain Boelcke, a brave and chivalrous foe.”
YjLd TIL Police in Clearwater, FL received 161 calls to 911 from the rooms of the Fort Harrison Hotel within a span of 11 months. Each time, Scientology security denied them entry, insisting there was no emergency.
oBNKA TIL in the event of Britain being destroyed and her government wiped out, there is a safe on four nuclear equipped submarine that contains the Prime Ministers ‘Letters Of Last Resort’. Nobody except the PM knows what it says.
GAmy4 TIL about Britain's White Feather Campaign, where women would shame men who refused (or were unable) to serve during WWI by gifting them white feathers. Despite an uptick in depression among young men and a number of suicides, the campaign was considered a success by the British government.