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TIL of the ‘Secret War’, where the CIA recruited 50% of the Hmong population to fight for the US in the Vietnam War. Afterwards, they were completely abandoned.

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XE9vP TIL that in 1996 In 1996 Canada’s Northwest Territories began exploring a name change. But the process was hijacked by pranksters who elevated the suggestion of “Bob” to second place over a variety of local Indigenous names.
6EkJl TIL that what American businessman and astronomer Percival Lowell mistakenly thought were “spokes” on the surface of Venus were actually shadows of the blood vessels in his eyes cast on his retina, his telescope essentially functioning as a giant ophthalmoscope.
0dPjy TIL the first Internet search engine was “Archie”, which was created in 1990 by Alan Emtage, a postgraduate student at McGill University in Montreal. It’s still around today and is considered a useful way to index FTP (File Transfer Protocol) archives.
x6jNB TIL there are five mass extinctions that each destroying 75-95% of all species. Currently we are on the sixth, because of human activities.
5YQL8 TIL the only book Stephen King has let go out of print is Rage, in which a kid shoots his teacher and holds his class hostage. While he doesn't think books, movies, or video games cause violence, he does think they could act as an outlet to commit violence through, and should be more responsible.