› added 4 years ago

1006

TIL that the Berlin Wall was not supposed to be torn down, but due to a mistake by the government it was torn down anyways.

kr47 Til Muslims believe that all human beings are born pure. Children automatically go to heaven when they die, regardless of the religion of their parents
R7eY8 TIL the term “the big apple” originally referred to horse racing. The city got its most famous nickname from a local newspaper’s horse racing column in the 1920s. Prior to the city’s adoption of the nickname, the phrase “Big Apple” was used to describe a big money prize at important horse races.
71AO TIL that women in America began smoking cigarettes in public thanks to Edward Bernays, nephew of Sigmund Freud, who used his uncle’s theories and press release technique to give women this freedom. He was actually employed by a tobacco corporation which needed to sell more.
x6565 TIL of the Civil Cooperation Bureau, a government death squad in Apartheid South Africa. Accused of murders, they also bombed a kindergarten, harassed a dissident by pointing a RPG7 at him while forcing him to drink moonshine, and tried to bewitch Desmond Tutu by hanging a baboon fetus in his home.
OLr6 TIL there was a man-made mouse utopia called Universe 25. It started with 4 males and 4 females. The colony peaked at 2200 and from there declined to extinction. Once a tipping point was reached, the mice lost instinctual behaviors. Scientists extrapolate this model to humans on earth.