› added 7 years ago

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TIL the "flourish of approval" is a check mark like symbol only used in the Kingdom of The Netherlands and its former colonies

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L46V TIL that humans do to horseshoe crabs what conspiracy theorists claim aliens do to humans. We capture the crabs in huge numbers, drain their blood, and then return them to the ocean.
NZx6 TIL the company that owned the World Trade Center had scheduled a meeting for 9/11/2001 on the 88th floor of tower 1 to discuss what to do in the event of a terrorist attack, but rescheduled the night before because someone couldn’t attend.
XEwwj TIL of Walter Freeman, a man with no surgical training who popularized the transorbital lobotomy by driving around the US performing thousands of procedures on not just men but women and children too. Contrary to popular believe, there is no evidence that he referred to his van as the "Lobotomobile"
9jVp TIL Cuba gifted East Germany a small island during the Cold War as a symbol of friendship. Many have claimed that the island is now the last official territory of East Germany as it was not mentioned in the Treaty which united East and West Germany in 1990
OLyR TIL Churchill in WW2 ordered all German Air Ambulances, painted white with red cross (Seenotdienst Search and Rescue) to be shot down when encountered