› added 13 years ago

115

TIL Canada’s First Astronaut is now a Member of Parliament

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

pYokA TIL in the 1950s, WHO sprayed DDT in Borneo to fight malaria, inadvertently killing cats. This led to a rat surge and outbreaks of typhus and plague. To counter this, the RAF parachuted 14,000 cats in "Operation Cat Drop."
wLRDY TIL The chief prosecutor for the United States in the Nuremberg Trials was Ben Ferencz, a 27 year old Jewish American lawyer who had never tried a case before. He investigated Nazi war crimes and went on to help establish the International Criminal Court. He's still alive today at 101.
E1awp TIL about John Bulkeley, who evacuated MacArthur from the Philippines, recruited JFK into the Navy, and tested security on the base he commanded by dressing up as a ninja and sneaking around at night
Z8wNp TIL Muammar Gaddafi pushed for the creation of a 'United States of Africa' with a unified African currency, a single African passport, and a common defense system.
QLe6 TIL Most tropical fruits, avocado, papaya, durian, were eaten by animals that no longer exist and should, evolutionarily, also be extinct