› added 8 years ago

75

TIL that one of the Nazi generals who was responsible for the Wola massacre of 40,000 in Poland was pardoned by West Germany because “genocide was not in the criminal code of Nazi Germany”.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

gArX TIL that in 1861, Giuseppe Garibaldi, hero of Italy’s independence, volunteered his services to President Abraham Lincoln and was offered a Major General’s commission in the U.S. Army. His sole condition: that the war’s objective be declared as the abolition of slavery.
LlPd TIL after being asked to return to work, a former slave told his former owner to send him $11,680 in back pay for the years he and his family worked for him just to consider returning.
4kBRa TIL about the Wilhelm Gustloff, a German military transport ship which was sunk in 1945 by a Soviet submarine while evacuating civilians and military. 9,400 people died, making it the largest loss of life in a single ship sinking in history
QN7gL TIL that the U.S. developed “Operation Cherry Blossom,” a plan to spread plague-infected fleas in Japan during World War II. Although never executed, it highlighted the lengths nations would go for biological warfare and sparked discussions on bioethics.
awV1Z TIL statistically British teeth are healthier than American teeth. One of the reasons Americans believe they have healthier teeth is due to an advertising campaign over 100 years ago.