› added 4 years ago

62

TIL that in 'A Clockwork Orange', the term used to refer to Alex's band of antisocial delinquents ("droogs") is derived from the Russian word for friend or buddy.

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a0xb TIL the Nazis dressed up political prisoners in Polish military uniforms, faked an attack on the German border, and shot the prisoners to justify the invasion of Poland the very next day.
w96M TIL a Canadian native and animal trapper called Grey Owl gained prominence in the early 1900s as a respected environmental conservationist. Upon his death it was revealed that he was actually a transplanted Englishman named Archibald Belaney, who had been colouring his skin and dying his hair black.
XENd8 TIL that PEZ candy was invented in Austria, and the three letters are the first, middle and last letters of PffeffErminZ, the German/Austrian word for peppermint.
90w7 TIL that 10 years ago today Spain, a country with 94% Catholic population, passed legislation legalizing same-sex marriage, becoming just the third country to do so.
8eLvL TIL Japan has one vending machine for every 30 people