› added 11 years ago

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TIL that East Germany lives on - as a tiny island off Cuba. In 1972, Fidel Castro gifted the island to East Germany. The island was not addressed in the 1990 reunification, and as such is still technically East German territory, even though the nation no longer exists.

9Y5jD TIL that a man walked across Australia, from Perth to Sydney, dressed in a Stormtrooper costume to raise money for a charity that helps cheer up hospitalized children. Over 9 months he traveled 3000 miles (5000km), lost over 26lbs (12kg), went through 7 pairs of shoes, and raised more than $100,000.
v1JNr TIL A century ago there were 100,000 tigers. Now there are just 3,900 remain in the wild. About 75% of the world's tiger population live in just one country.
ANoel TIL that the Washington Territory (soon to be Washington state) was originally going to be called Columbia but the name was deemed too similar to the District of Columbia. District of Columbia was ironically renamed to Washington D.C. before Washington gained statehood.
Z8oXD TIL: Mysterious metal mini-awnings set knee-high on some London exteriors are urine deflectors. “A man may sometimes walk a mile before he can meet with a suitable" outdoor pee site, fussed an 1809 London writer who condemned the inventions that "conduct the stream into the shoes of the luckless."
R5yK1 TIL that the king of Thailand, Rama X, the richest monarch in the world and the longest birth name of any current monarch: Vajiralongkorn Boromchakrayadisorn Santatiwong Thewetthamrongsuboribal Abhikkunupakornmahitaladulyadej Bhumibolnaretwarangkun Kittisirisombunsawangwat Boromkhattiyarajakumarn.