› added 10 years ago

422

TIL that in 2009, snipers were deployed in Australia to protect a colony of little penguins from predators.

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via reddit.com

KONV9 TIL: the city of Venice was founded as Italians hid in the marshes and lagoons to hide from the invasion of Attila the Hun
QJRPL TIL the day after John Lennon was murdered, Mark D. Chapman was supposed to attend a David Bowie concert, as Bowie was his next target. Lennon and Yoko Ono were supposed to go to the show too, so when the show started, there were three empty seats in front row. The ones for Lennon, Ono and Chapman
BgbVr TIL the hardest material available to Pacific Island natives on atolls was shark teeth prior to the arrival of outside explorers. Islanders crafted serrated saws by embedding rows of shark teeth into wooden or bone handles, securing them with plant fibers or sinew.
PYaBe TIL Jame Watson (co-discoverer of DNA) decided to auction off his Nobel prize medal in view of his diminished income, for US$4.1 million. The medal was subsequently returned to Watson by the purchaser, Russian tycoon Alisher Usmanov.
xpGb TIL Marc Bloch, a loyal Frenchman & historian, was captured by Nazis in Vichy France & lined up to be executed. Next to him during the execution a boy groaned, “This is going to hurt,” which then Bloch replied, “No, my boy, it doesn’t hurt.” He held the boy’s hand & shouted “Vive La France!”