› added 10 months ago

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TIL of Khaled al-Assad, a Syrian archaeologist who in 2015 gave his life to protect the ancient city of Palmyra from destruction by IS militants. Under torture and pain of death, he refused to reveal the location of priceless artifacts he’d hidden away.

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QN87E TIL Michael Shaara's book The Killer Angels, 1975 Pulitzer Prize for fiction, and the basis for the 1993 movie Gettysburg, reached the top of the NYT best seller list twenty years after being published. The Civil War battle novel is considered one of the best historic fictions ever written.
69Ebm TIL mutilation practices (e.g. cutting of hands etc.) did not just occur in the Congo Free State under Leopold II but also in British Sierra Leone, German Kamerun and French Equatorial Africa
VMgl4 TIL more and more people are booking cruises on cargo ships. Passengers like it because they are less crowded, there are less distractions, and you can go on routes traditional cruise ships don't frequent
9wlPM TIL about Mark Twain’s proposed Philippines flag during U.S. territorial expansion: an altered U.S. Flag with black stripes instead of white and skull and crossbones instead of stars.
Y7Dv7 TIL Illinois has 9 Official State Animals