› added 10 months ago

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TIL the Lubyanka building, former national KGB HQ, was originally built in 1898 as the headquarters of the All-Russia Insurance Company, on the spot where Catherine the Great had once headquartered her secret police.

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Z8elY TIL: Like all male Swiss citizens, Roger Federer was subject to compulsory military service in the Swiss Armed Forces. However, he was ruled "unsuitable" due to an unspecified injury. Instead he served in the civil protection force & was required to pay 3% of his taxable income as an alternative.
rmdM TIL Google has created and tested driverless cars on the streets of California, and over the course of 300,000 miles, they’ve only been in two accidents: One while someone was driving the car manually, and one in which the car was rear-ended at a stoplight.
v9WR TIL that after undergoing eye surgery, French impressionist painter Claude Monet allegedly developed the ability to see certain UV wavelenghts, which was also reflected in some of his paintings
p8Mye TIL If you have an IGA near you and have noticed how localized or regional the offerings are its becasue they're not a chain store like most other grocers. All IGAs are independently owned and run solely by their independent owner.. There are locations in 30 different countries!
wkjJ TIL Cleopatra and Julius Caesar nicknamed their lovechild “Caesarion” which means “Little Caesar”