› added 5 years ago

85

TIL of Ranald MacDonald, a Chinook/Scotsman from Oregon Country, who went to Japan in 1848 despite its strict isolationist policy. Risking death, he pretended to be shipwrecked & got captured. While imprisoned, the gov't sent 14 samurai to be his pupils, as he became Japan's first English teacher.

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0dr4y TIL of the humorous and ineffective sorting algorithm Miracle Sort, where it keeps checking an array until it becomes sorted. It requires external force (a miracle) to change the array in some way so it becomes sorted, or that the array is already sorted to begin with.
oB44R TIL Australia has the highest cigarette tax rates in the world, with a 12.5% yearly excise being applied since 2010. This will continue until 2020, when the average packet of cigarettes is projected cost about AU$40 (USD$30). This compares to about $6-8 in the US and the EU.
v1Zpx TIL Kurdish forces allegedly volunteered to join the Allied Forces during WWII, but the offer was declined
R85Q TIL That Russia Has Approved Construction of an Estimated $66B Tunnel Across the Bering Strait Starting Sometime After 2030, Making a Railway from New York to London a Possibility During This Century
0wxJM TIL Helen Keller was a co-founder of the ACLU.