› added 6 years ago

914

TIL that during a Communist Party conference in 1937, following a speech by Stalin, the audience began to clap and carried on for 11 minutes, with no-one daring to be the first to stop. The first person to stop was a paper factory director who was arrested that night and sent to prison for 10 years.

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LkYW9 TIL Canadians say “sorry” so much that a law was passed in 2009 declaring that an apology can’t be used as evidence of admission to guilt.
LQQJp TIL the YMCA (Young Men's Christian Association) was founded under the principles of 'Muscular Christianity,' a Christian philosophy that ties physical strength and development with Christian spiritual growth. The creation of the modern Olympic Games was also influenced by this philosophy.
0oWA TIL that Coconuts are so important in the Cook Islands they ask about them in the census. For the record, each home eats ten coconuts per week… and feeds 75 to their animals.
KOaXQ TIL before the creation of a public, professional, paid fire department in Boston, the city would pay whatever company arrived first at the scene of a fire, which led to intense competition, and even physical altercations between companies on the way to fires.
PXJw TIL of Stanisława Leszczyńska, a polish midwife who was incarcerated at Auschwitz during WW2. Leszczyńska was advised to euthanize the newborns she delivered. She did not comply, did not kill a single child, and delivered over 3,000 children. Today she is an official candidate for sainthood.