› added 12 years ago

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TIL the Wheel of Time book series took 23 years and 2 authors to complete

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lVK5 TIL that blond hair in humans developed only 11,000 years ago as an evolutionary response to the lack of sunlight in Northern Europe to enable more Vitamin D synthesis.
DQO5p TIL of the 1986 Illinois gubernatorial election, where Lyndon LaRouche's cultists hijacked the Democratic lieutenant governor primary to nominate one of their own, causing the actual Democrats to split off and form their own 3rd party for the year
YpAkd TIL the Danish police resisted Nazi command so fiercely that 1,960 of its 10,000 police members were arrested and sent to concentration camps. Faced with Nazi demands, the Danish police administration was inclined to accepted them, but the Police organizations refused, leading to the deportations.
6ElaX TIL that one of the qualifications required to be elected President of Afghanistan is to not have been convicted of crimes against humanity
GYRW1 TIL the world's first emergency phone number was launched in London in 1937. It initially only covered a radius of 12 miles. The 999 number was chosen due to the ease of dialing it on phones at that time.