› added 1 year ago

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TIL: In 1968, over 6000 sheep were killed in Utah and popular theories pointed to the Army. It was revealed 30 years later that it was indeed the result of nerve agent testing. Families nearby developed nervous system illnesses, but the Army accepted no responsibility.

bQJQ TIL that the Tiger Beetle can run so fast it can go blind, having to stop whilst chasing prey so that their sight can ‘catch up’
4Xe6g TIL in an experiment where subjects were told to allocate funds to other subjects, they would always favour members of their own group, even though they didn't know who the groupmembers were, had never met them, and had been arbitrarily put into their group.
6EeWY TIL that although Nazi Germany sterilized or murdered 73-100% of all schizophrenics in Germany (about 220K-269K people), there were no long-term effects on subsequent rates of schizophrenia in Germany. In fact, post WWII rates were unexpectedly high.
D6nJ TIL in 1842 Queen Victoria had a pistol aimed at her while she was riding a carriage, but the gun misfired and the assassin escaped. The next day she deliberately took the same route to bait the assassin, who subsequently caught.
yQA6a TIL of Susanne Ripton, a Jew who survived the holocaust as a child. In 1940, when she was 4, soldiers broke into her home in Paris. She was saved when a neighbour rushed in and said that she was her daughter. She spent years hiding. In 1969, she discovered her parents had been killed at Auschwitz.