› added 10 years ago

126

TIL “Coffee is the second most valuable commodity exported from developing countries, petroleum being the first”

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VME7D TIL 80% of all historical marriages have been between 2nd cousins or closer
5Nyn TIL a British soldier spent most of WW1 hiding in a wardrobe. A French family in German occupied France had taken him in, however 16 German soldiers were then billeted at the residence, spending their time in the same room as the wardrobe. Everyday he was silent and still to avoid being detected.
jLwj TIL that Ian Fleming wanted his protagonist to be ‘an extremely dull, uninteresting man’ and when trying to name him, thought that 'James Bond’ was the “dullest name [he] ever heard”
kOKnE TIL The Mayans had paper-based books (codices) that Spanish missionaries burned, causing "much affliction" among the surviving Maya. Only three codices survive today.
aaoM TIL that despite the story that Cleopatra killed herself by letting an asp bite her, it was more probable that she killed herself using a mixture of opium and hemlock.