› added 5 months ago

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TIL about the Sorbian people of Lusatia in eastern Germany. They speak a Slavic language, keep bilingual signs, and still celebrate traditions like Easter horseback parades and intricate egg painting. Though small in number, they’ve preserved their culture for over 1,000 years.

KYAR TIL that during a duel-related brawl, Jim Bowie got shot, pistol-whipped so hard the gun broke, and impaled with a sword cane. With the sword still in his chest, he disemboweled his attacker before getting shot and stabbed again by someone else. He lived and went on to fight at the Alamo.
QJWPe TIL of the Jolly Roger Telephone Company. You pay them to obnoxiously respond to robocalls. "Subscribers can choose robot personalities, such as Whiskey Jack, who is frequently distracted by a game he is watching on television, or Salty Sally, a frazzled mother."
0d0K1 TIL the Expatriation Act of 1907 forced U.S. women to lose their citizenship if they married foreign nationals, automatically adopting their husband's nationality. This discriminatory policy was overturned by the Cable Act of 1922, which restored women’s right to retain their citizenship.
OoLpg TIL that Alessandro Volta not only invented battery, but also discovered and isolated methane and was a prime minister of short-lived Cisalpine Republic
JbP8 TIL a young Xhosa girl had a vision instructing the tribe to kill all the cattle and destroy the crops, as a sacrifice to the ancestors who would rise up and drive the white settlers into the sea. Thus began the ‘Great Cattle Killing’ after which over 40,000 Xhosa died in the resulting famine.