› added 5 years ago

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TIL that Isoroku Yamamoto, Admiral of the Japanese navy in WWII, who had first been assigned to sea, (following his opposition to the Tripartite pact with Germany and Italy), for fear that if he stayed on land he would be assassinated within a year

XZpQ TIL of the Skeleton Coast of Namibia, aka “The Gates of Hell”, a place so inhospitable that when the MV Dunedin went aground in 1942, passengers were only rescued after another ship ran aground, a big aircraft was damaged on landing, was repaired and crashed again, and several army trucks were lost.
rNwx4 TIL that during the Argentine economic boom, from the 1860s to 1930s, the UK played a dominant role in the Argentine economy. The community of English, Scottish, and Welsh Argentines was the largest of any country outside the British Empire, leading to the popular name of the "Sixth Dominion".
ADjDl TIL about the Ghost Fleet of the Potomac, 200 or so wrecks of abandoned ships, most from WWI. It has become a unique ecological system full of fish, birds, and other wildlife and opportunities for archeological discoveries. In 2019 it became a National Marine Sanctuary.
6907l TIL about the thick-tailed pygmy jerboa, a species of rodent found in China, Kazakhstan, and Mongolia. They have a head and body length of around 4.5-6 cm, are described as having a large head with small eyes, and live in permanent burrows with multiple passages that can extend for 3 m.
Eg9dX TIL of the Euphemistic Treadmill whereby euphemisms, which were originally the polite term (such as STD to refer to Venereal Disease) become themselves pejorative over time.