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TIL of the Winterberg tunnel; which , during WW1 was sealed shut by French artillery fire trapping the 270 German soldier inside. Over the next six days, as oxygen ran out, they either suffocated or took their own lives. Some asked comrades to kill them. The tunnel has just been discovered.

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7rmeX TIL that as an alternative Jewish Homeland to then British Palestine, Stalin's USSR set aside a small part of Siberia as a Jewish autonomous region. While largely unsuccessful the autonomous region still exists today. A collective farm was even called "Stalinfeld"
v1Nx7 TIL: The rock band Queen were fined by the British Musicians' Union and added to the United Nations cultural blacklist because they played in South Africa during the height of apartheid.
Ookja TIL experiments found that the colors of light reflected on crops while growing can affect their products: tomatoes grown over red mulch had 20% higher yield, carrots grown over yellow mulch had higher concentrations of beta carotene, "far-red" light increased the lengths of cotton fibers, and more.
rNO14 TIL One of the oldest cases of environmental law is the English land dispute Aldred's Case from 1610. William Aldred claimed that Thomas Benton had built a pigsty too close to his house. The courts ruled that the pigsty deprived Aldred of his property and personal dignity.
DRgV TIL Kathryn Bigelow is the first and only female to win the Academy Award for Best Director, winning for the 2009 film “The Hurt Locker”