› added 11 years ago

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TIL people of the British Virgin Islands are British and EU citizens but the official currency is USD, and they drive on the left side of the road but the cars are left hand drive

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K88w TIL after Germany’s openly-gay Foreign Minister called him “Europe’s last dictator”, Belarus’s President responded that it was “better to be a dictator than gay”.
1Z1W TIL In 1951 a poor woman named Henrietta Lacks donated her cells to science without knowing it. Her cells would be the first “immortal cells” that could be kept alive for medical use. They’ve been used for everything from creating the polio vaccine to cloning.
pGa4 TIL that Kent cigarettes, a popular brand from the 50s through the 70s, had filters made of asbestos fibers. (and yes, that is the bad kind of asbestos)
gr66X TIL that the children’s song “Do Your Ears Hang Low?” is a sanitized version of “Do Your Balls Hang Low?”, which was popular with British soldiers in WWI. General Douglas Haig once heard a column of soldiers singing it and went to berate their commander, only to find the commander singing along.
xZbb TIL Eddie “The Eagle” Edwards was the 1st Olympic ski jumper for England in 52 years. He had no money, no coach, no team and only learned to ski jump 18 months earlier. He wore 6 pairs of socks inside his second hand boots, a helmet given to him by the Italians, and used skis from the Austrian team.