› added 3 weeks ago

4

TIL that in May 1969, California’s National Guard was called in to violently clear protesters at UC Berkeley’s People’s Park, resulting in bloodshed and a governor who said “If it takes a bloodbath, let’s get it over with.”

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

kO6l7 TIL American Indians Serve in the U.S. Military in Greater Numbers Than Any Ethnic Group and Have Since the Revolution
KYJ5G TIL the twin towns of Laufenburg, split by the High Rhine, built a bridge in 2004. Different sea level references—Mediterranean for Switzerland, North Sea for Germany—led to a 270 mm difference, which a sign error doubled to 540 mm in the middle of the bridge.
xDEg TIL pronunciation of the letter “H” as either “haytch” or “aytch” was a sign of what religion you belonged to in Ireland (Catholic vs Protestant respectively)
b6JJp TIL There are filial laws in the USA (state by state) that require adult children to support sick or indigent parents
AD41n TIL that the small "climbing boys" who were forced up chimneys to clean them sometimes had fires lit underneath them deliberately to encourage them to climb if they were reluctant, and would sometimes get caught in the flames and burn to death