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TIL the stock market got the names “bear and bull” because of caballeros in California. The caballeros put California grizzlies in battle with bulls. They observed bears swiped downward and bulls hooked upward, thus lending the analogy. This also helped lead to the California grizzly’s extinction.

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VMk8k TIL that deer in the Czech Republic don’t cross into Germany, following the example of parents who learned to avoid the electrified fence there during the Cold War.
R5a77 TIL of the WWII Kaimingjie Germ Weapon Attack, a Japanese biological warfare germ strike attack on Chinese cities using fleas infected with cholera and the bubonic plague
XVrD TIL in 1869, Chinese and Irish laborers working on the Central Pacific Railway managed to lay down 10 miles of tracks in just one day. This accomplishment has not been matched even in modern times.
7reDx TIL A WW2 pigeon named Mary of Exeter survived an assassination attempt by a German warhawk, was shot, hit with shrapnel, and survived a bombing of her loft while delivering messages across the English Channel to France.
awAZy TIL several Mosler Safe Company vaults were installed in Hiroshima's Mitsui Bank building prior to WWII. After surviving the nuclear attack on the island, the company became renowned for the strength of the vaults and would be the gold standard for blast doors during the Cold War.