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TIL in the Congo Free State soldiers had to provide the severed hand of Congolese they shot as proof they weren’t misusing munition, but in practice the hands became a sort of currency since they allowed soldiers to save bullets, leading to them cutting the hand off living people

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p8JwO TIL despite failing to find Malaysian Airlines Flight MH370, the search effort produced the most detailed underwater map ever created
d8waj TIL that bacteriophages (viruses that infect bacteria) kill so many bacteria that their corpses release 1 BILLION TONS of carbon every DAY, which is a major source of food for bottom-dwelling ocean creatures.
6m4Z TIL The first president of Zimbabwe was President Banana who passed his first law making it illegal to make jokes about his name.
grVmA TIL that Alaska Airlines does not know the identity of the smiling man on the tail of its aircraft.
8eG7X TIL that there is a town under water in the state of Maine because a greedy power company flooded it for their own use and when not all homeowners agreed to sell, they flooded it anyway.