› added 6 years ago

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TIL that Madagascar has a larger population than Australia by almost a million people. Madagascar has a population of 25,570,900 while Australia has 24,598,930.

Read more data.worldbank.org

via reddit.com

l7o9A TIL the "black rat" is of the genus Rattus and species Rattus, making it's official name the Rattus Rattus
P1bye TIL Alfred Canning surveyed the 1900km Canning Stock Route through the Western Australian desert by capturing and chaining Indigenous people and force feeding them salt - coercing them to show the survey party the way to water. A Royal Commission exonerated the survey party of any wrongdoing.
RD1l TIL the Nazis hated being called the Nazis. It was a derogatory term for a backwards peasant – being a shortened version of Ignatius, a common name in Bavaria, the area from which the Nazis emerged.
Oo4Zg TIL in 1832, a US ship was captured by pirate Pedro Gilbert. After, he had part of filled with explosives, before setting it on fire with the crew trapped inside. However, they escaped and doused the flames, letting smoke billow out until the pirates had left. 6 weeks later, they returned to port.
D1wbJ TIL that Akon, a successful artist who won several platinums stopped with music to focus on his humanitarian project "Akon Lighting Africa". This project has installed more than 200.000 solar power systems and are educating people in learning how to use solar power.