› added 4 years ago

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TIL the front passenger seat in a vehicle, next to the driver is called "Shotgun"because the position of the shotgun-armed guard on a horse-drawn stage-coach, wagon train, or gold transport was next to the driver on a forward-mounted bench seat.

OojOY TIL in Battle of Wizna (1939), 700 Polish soldiers defended their fortified line for 3 days against 40,000 Germans. In the end, German forces broke through the line with 1400 casualties. For Poland, only around 70 Poles survived, got captured and eventually taken to camps
Z8WMB TIL When Congress imposed a gag rule in 1836 to suppress debate about slavery, ex-President John Quincy Adams refused to comply, risking censure and spending the next eight years introducing thousands of antislavery petitions until the rule was repealed.
7rAyO TIL of Civilian Public Service (CPS), a US government program that provided conscientious objectors with an alternative to military service during World War II. CPS draftees fought forest fires, helped reform an abusive mental health system, and even acted as test subjects in medical experiments.
ep4QL TIL that the oldest description of cancer dates back to 3000 B.C. The Edwin Smith Papyrus described tumors of the breasts that were removed by a tool called the fire drill.
GOV7 TIL that in WW2 English spies planned to make Hitler less aggressive by feeding him oestrogen, the female sex hormone. It would go unnoticed by his food testers because it was slow and subtle. The English spies were already close enough to Hitler to execute the plan, but it never went through.