› added 4 years ago

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TIL in The Moscow Theater Hostage Crisis of '02, Olga Romanova, a 26-year-old civilian acting on her own, crossed the police line undetected, entered the theatre and began urging the hostages to stand up to their captors. The armed Chechens believed she was a Federal Security agent and executed her.

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o1Qr TIL that Chinese armed forces use crossbows at all unit levels to stop persons carrying explosives without risk of causing detonation.
rx14 TIL that Vitamin D supplements are made by extracting the fat from sheeps’ wool
6AE8 TIL that tomatoes, potatoes, paprika, peppers, and eggplant are part of a family called ‘nightshade’ foods, which contain a toxin called 'solanine’ - ingested in large quantities can cause hallucinations, paralysis and death.
epE9D TIL the name for XO sauce comes from fine XO (extra-old) cognac, which is a popular Western liquor in Hong Kong. The name is a misnomer since the condiment contains no cognac, and it is not really a sauce in the traditional, smooth sense, but more chunky, like a relish.
9YQD7 TIL that in the 2000 Paralympics, 10 out of 12 players in Spain's ID Basketball team were non-disabled, who pretended to have intellectual disabilities. The scandal was exposed after the Paralympics, when one of the players was revealed to be an investigative journalist.