› added 7 years ago

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TIL US Ensign Chester Nimitz was court-martialed and reprimanded for grounding a destroyer in 1908. He would become Commander in Chief, Pacific Fleet during WWII, and Chief of Naval Operations after the war.

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R5rV7 TIL the 🔫 emoji was the subject of controversy & was repeatedly redesigned.
woPJ8 TIL Euthanasia for patients with dementia is legal in Belgium, Canada, Colombia, Luxembourg, and the Netherlands.
9YGJM TIL that the letter K was effectively dropped from the Welsh language in the late 1500s, simply because the (English) printers didn't have enough Ks for the newly translated Welsh New Testament; the translator instructed them to use Cs instead and the convention stuck.
Oo7P4 TIL A way Switzerland kept itself from being invaded is by booby-trapping and blowing up all it's border linkages, and bridges making it merely impossible for the Nazis to invade during WW2.
aw9oN TIL that Iraq dug extensive trenches prior to the Gulf War. The US army responded by mounting plows on tanks, and drove them through 70 miles of trenches guarded by 8,000 soldiers. Most Iraqi soldiers were buried alive, making a body count impossible. There were zero American casualties.