› added 7 years ago

111

TIL that a bridge built in 2003 in northern Costa Rica is colloquially known as ‘Backstab Bridge’. It was paid for, designed and built by Taiwan only for Costa Rica to cut off ties with Taiwan in favour of China.

Read more wikipedia.org

via ift.tt

gM5Pb TIL about the 1898 Siege of Baler. During the Philippine revolution a 50 soldiers detachment of the Spanish 2nd Expeditionary Battalion Cazadores managed to survive 337 days in a fortified church, while killing 700 Filipino Revolutionaries and suffering only 17 casualties mostly due to disease.
ADNMd TIL that in 1974, a German artist flew to NYC, was picked up with a stretcher and wrapped in felt and taken to an enclosed space where he spent 3 days living with a wild coyote. He was then taken back to his plane the same way, never setting foot on America.
YpDpP TIL as of April 2018, Swaziland has been renamed as Eswatini, one of the reasons behind the King's decision to rename the country was that "...abroad, people refer to us as Switzerland."
xV4l5 TIL that Katsuya Eguchi, the creator for the game Animal Crossing, drew his inspiration for it from experiences of having to move from where he grew up to moving to Nintendo headquarters and wanted to "recreate the feeling of being alone in a new town, away from friends and family."
xVVQ0 TIL that the rumour that actress Lupe Velez drowned in her toilet when she slipped while vomiting after a barbiturate overdose is false. Official reports state her death was due to Seconal poisoning not drowning