› added 12 years ago

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TIL Suicide rates for war veterans are at a rate of nearly one per day this year.

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641Y TIL…Bill Gates and Warren Buffett went to China to encourage their billionaires about the benefits of Philanthropy (giving to their community), they were mainly ignored because Philanthropy (outside of supporting family) is not part of Chinese culture
4x1b TIL that Stephen Girard, one of the wealthiest men in American history, personally saved the U.S. government from financial collapse during the War of 1812.
kOr6d TIL: In the United States the reason voting takes place on a Tuesday is in 1845 it could take rural farmers up to a day of travelling by horse and cart to get to a voting station. Wednesday was typically market day and Sunday was the Biblical Sabbath so Tuesday was chosen to allow ample travel time.
0wX0v TIL of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish special envoy who assisted in saving thousands of Jews from the Holocaust, often singlehandedly pulling Jews from train cars right under the noses and arms of the Nazis.
JY7M4 TIL Mars' Olympus Mons, the tallest known volcano in the solar system, has such a gradual slope, someone standing at the base would not be able to see the summit because it's beyond the horizon.