› added 8 months ago

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TIL about the Mariel boatlift, which saw around 125000 people leave Cuba, among them political dissenters, homosexuals and prison inmates

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jgJa TIL that until the late 90s people used to refer to first person shooters as “Doom clones”
x6v0w TIL that the Illuminati existed but had no enduring influence on world politics
e08pJ TIL that the Ho Chi Minh trail was not simply a few footpaths but a network of tracks wide enough to drive trucks along, and multiple oil pipelines that by the end of the war had supplied 270,000 tonnes of petroleum to troops in southern Vietnam
oRkm8 TIL of Agongointo-Zoungoudo. Rediscovered in 1998 in Benin, West Africa - this town of approx 50 bunkers was built 32 feet below ground level in the late 16th Century. King Dakodonou is thought to have commissioned the town to protect his kingdom in the event of an attack.
moBR TIL the first black-white interracial kiss on American television was on an episode of Star Trek. However, the producers were worried about the show being banned in the South because of it, and tried to shoot alternate versions of the shot. The actors intentionally flubbed those shots.