› added 9 months ago

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TIL in the 1950s, the CIA exploited Filipino vampire myths to instill fear in villages, killing a man, marking him with bite wounds, and hanging him upside down. This was part of efforts to help elect Ramon Magsaysay, a U.S. backed president.

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eMp5 TIL that LSD was first synthesized in 1938 but it wasn’t until 5 years later that it’s creator accidentally consumed it, discovering its hallucinogenic properties.
8waX TIL Canada has a little-known, “world class,” elite special ops force called Joint Task Force 2, which was the only foreign unit accepted to join top-tier U.S. special operations units in Afghanistan
D1MnY TIL that the Queen actually has two birthdays- one that was determined by the commonwealth and changed to be the second saturday of June, and another that is her actual one which is the 21st of April. The birthday is changed in order to guarantee better weather for celebration
x6KNB TIL of Toussaint Louverture, the most prominent leader of the Haitian Revolution. Born a slave, his tactical brilliance and commitment to freedom resulted in the abolition of slavery in Haiti in 1793. His leadership saw the island emerge as the first independent republic in Latin America in 1804.
LQveP TIL the world's heaviest free-roaming tortoise is an Aldabra giant tortoise named Esmeralda who weighs 670 pounds (304kg), lives on Bird Island, Seychelles & is thought to be as much as 170 years old. He was named by famous botanist/zoologist Lyall Watson.