› added 6 years ago

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TIL that "knocking on wood" originated from pagan culture and was done to scare away evil spirts that lived in trees

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awZYb TIL In the Olympics if there is a tie, contestants can share the gold medal. There has been 120 instances of medal sharing since the modern Summer Olympics began in Athens but this is the first time in history where rival athletes from different countries asked about the possibility themselves
YppRZ TIL of the USS Higbee, the first combat ship named after a woman who served in the Navy.
J11nm TIL that Michael Jordan had to put away his cigar in certain interviews in the last dance was because his mom saw and got mad at him.
ogdL TIL Alexander the Great expressed in his last will and testament the desire to see “transplant of populations from Asia to Europe and in the opposite direction from Europe to Asia, in order to bring the largest continent to common unity and to friendship by means of intermarriage and family ties.”
JYyYV TIL that the USA dropped thousands of food packages over Afghanistan as a way of trying to earn the goodwill of the local population. Unfortunately they were printed in languages the average Afghan couldn't read, and were the exact color as cluster munitions dropped during the same operation.