› added 6 years ago

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TIL In 1888, the train carrying the Russian Imperial Family derailed. Emperor Alexander III used his massive physical strength to lift the collapsed roof of the dining car so his family could escape. However, the blunt force trauma on his kidneys caused the nephritis which killed him 6 years later.

VJb4 TIL that when Australia stopped using the pound as it’s currency, some suggested names for the the new currency were the austral, the oz, the boomer, the roo, the kanga, the emu, the digger, the Quid, the dinkum and the Ming before the government ultimately settled on the Australian dollar.
PYeXn TIL Nietzsche criticised antisemitism and German nationalism, believing in his final years he was "a pure-blooded Polish nobleman, without a single drop of bad blood, certainly not German". He claimed he and Germany were great thanks to "Polish blood in their veins" and wanted "all antisemites shot"
9jBG TIL that British spies used semen as invisible ink during WWI. The method was invented by Captain Sir Mansfield Cumming.
OoJge TIL that Lee Valley, a Canadian woodworking tool company, pays their employees on a “slope”. This means the top paid CEO cannot make more than 10 times the lowest paid employee. It also means the same CEO gets the same cut of their profit sharing as the lowest paid employee
loxZ1 TIL Around 1990, The Red Hot Chili Peppers appeared on James Whale's show and sexually harassed the show's co-host, Cleo Rocos, to the point that Whale (who was gay) pretended he was engaged to the woman to get the band to stop molesting her.