› added 8 months ago

21

TIL of WW2 British Paratrooper Colonel Richard Pine-Coffin. His somewhat unlucky surname led to his troops nicknaming him Colonel "Wooden Box."

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

DK1J TIL Swedish millionaire Johan Eliasch purchased 400,000 acres of the Amazon Rainforest from a logging company for $14,000,000 for the sole purpose of its preservation.
vPE1B TIL that in the middle ages, men who wanted a boy sometimes had their left testicle removed as they believed that the left testicle produce "girl" sperm and the right testicle produce "boy" sperm
GkJG TIL 114 billionaires have pledged to donate the majority of their wealth to philanthropy as part of a project led by Bill Gates and Warren Buffett.(X-post from worldnews)
KL9G TIL Marijuana was LEGAL in India until 1985, when under American governmental pressure, it had to declare possession of marijuana illegal despite it being consumed for years and being a part of India’s culture.
0wbyM TIL in year 536 a volcanic eruption in Iceland blocked out the sun for 18 months