› added 9 months ago

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TIL - In US criminal cases, a jury can reach a verdict contrary to the evidence and let murders walk free with no consequence.

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Oo8pa TIL Xerxes built two pontoon bridges over the Dardanelles strait to move his troops into Macedonia. When a storm destroyed the bridges, Xerxes had the builders beheaded and sent his army to whip, yell at, and brand the waters. The bridges were never rebuilt. Xerxes later lost the war with Macedonia.
xVmQD TIL about the Biscari Massacre, a WWII war crime where a United States army sergeant murdered 37 POWS in cold blood. His life sentence was commuted and he died in 1974.
XE1ER TIL Salvador Dali avoided paying restaurant tabs by using checks. He would draw on the back as the waiter watched, knowing no one would ever cash the art.
R1bj TIL During the “secret war” waged by the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) from 1964 to 1973 against communist and nationalist forces in Laos, more bombs were dropped on this rural nation of poor farmers than all the explosives dropped on Germany and Japan in the Second World War.
GwQ5 TIL Houston has a program that allows citizens to give tickets to those who abuse handicap parking spaces, after taking a four hour course.