› added 5 years ago

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TIL During times of war and other crises in Britain, men with seafaring experience would be taken against their will by press gangs to become part of the Royal Navy crew. Sometimes they were taken in the middle of the street and would find themselves trapped on a ship and with no hope of escape.

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b9dQQ TIL: Jean Moulin, Resistance hero, cut his own throat rather than incriminate innocent soldiers. The Nazis had tried to force him to sign a false document and he didn't want to risk breaking under torture.
KOgjQ TIL that a legal fight between the heirs of John Steinbeck prevented Steven Spielberg from directing a re-make of "The Grapes of Wrath" starring Daniel Day-Lewis
rRg6W TIL the oldest material we've found on Earth was in the Murchison meteorite, being 2.5 billion years older than Earth itself
oY8E TIL a man lived in a French airport departure lounge for 17 years. He entered the airport and ‘lost’ his passport. As he had no passport he could not fly to his destination, the UK, but he had entered France legally so could not be expelled.
Pprg TIL until Dec 2013, McDonald’s employee help site advised workers to take food stamps, break food into smaller pieces to feel fuller, seek refunds for unopened presents, sell possessions online, and to “quit complaining” as “stress hormone levels rise by 15 percent after ten minutes of complaining.”