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TIL, in 1976 alone, the Indian government sterilized 6.2 million men

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AD51o TIL about the Chesapeake Bay Flotilla, a motley collection of barges and gunboats assembled to defend Chesapeake Bay from the British Royal Navy. The ships were scuttled to prevent capture, and the sailors brought the cannons ashore to defend Washington D.C. in the Battle of Bladensburg.
YpNov TIL the Hungarian physician Semmelweis proved that doctors washing their hands (not yet standard for mid-19th century Europe) greatly reduced hospital maternal mortality.As germs weren't discovered yet,he was ridiculed & later dismissed from his post. He mentally broke down & died in a mental asylum
oWX7 TIL that adding trigger words such as “suicide” or “9/11” to your e-mails stops ads from appearing on your Gmail account
4kLRJ TIL the dangers of PVC.
l7gW5 TIL that in the 1980s East Germany tried to resolve a major coffee shortage by building coffee-production infrastructure in Vietnam, its close ally. By the time any coffee was harvested, East Germany had ceased to exist. Meanwhile, today Vietnam is the second-largest coffee producer in the world