› added 8 years ago

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TIL the 1978 “UFO abduction” of Frederick Valentich has been solved: out searching for UFOs, the inexperienced pilot saw “4 points of light of an elongated UFO”. Recent astronomical simulations show a perfect diamond formed by Mercury, Venus, Mars and nearby star Antares.

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via reddit.com

PYEDV TIL there’s a missing link in the European bison lineage that scientists call the “Higgs Bison.”
a7JL TIL that Tamerlane was a Turkish ruler whose tomb was discovered by Soviet archeologists in 1941. An inscription in the tomb read “Who ever opens my tomb, shall unleash an invader more terrible than I.” Two days later, the Nazis launched Operation Barbarossa and invaded the USSR.
R7AJ1 TIL of Porajmos, Nazi Germany’s and its WWII allies’ effort to commit ethnic cleansing and eventually genocide against Europe’s Romani people. Later research cited by Ian Hancock estimated the death toll to be at about 1.5 million out of an estimated 2 million Roma.
oBomY TIL The Romans created the first road signs. Most signs told you how many miles you were from Rome as well as who built the road and who was the last person to repair it.
RDo4 TIL the name of the ‘USA Patriot Act’ is an acronym; “Uniting and Strengthening America by Providing Appropriate Tools Required to Intercept and Obstruct Terrorism Act of 2001”