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TIL that the first battle of WWI consisted of a British ship firing a single shot at a German ship on Lake Nyasa (now Lake Malawi) in Africa, and taking the captain "prisoner." The two captains had been drinking buddies for years, and weren't about to let the war ruin it.

Read more telegraph.co.uk

via reddit.com

MeWMa TIL in 2013 a Nike ad featuring Oscar Pistorius and the slogan "I am the bullet in the chamber" was pulled from Pistorius' site after he was charged with murder for fatally shooting his girlfriend.
DW5r TIL According to Norse mythology, Thor’s hammer Mjölnir was originally intended to be wielded with both hands. Its characteristically short handle is due to a manufacturing defect caused by Loki who harrased the dwarven brothers Sindri and Brokkr while they were forging the weapon.
eoLk TIL during World War II, the British secret service set up fake charities to distribute care packages with special copies of the board game Monopoly to prisoners of war in Germany. The game contained real compasses; metal files; French, German, and Italian money; and maps.
5Y8gR TIL The Aztecs did not build Aztec Ruins National Monument, a World Heritage Site in the American state of New Mexico; it was actually built by the Pueblo natives. The name is a misattribution from 19th century settlers.
0w4oL TIL: Only one commercial entity in America can import Coco Leaves with approval from the DEA, The Stepan Company, after extracting the Cocaine, the leaves are then shipped to Coca Cola to be used as an ingredient in the secret recipe thus making an imitation recipe near impossible.