› added 10 months ago

26

TIL Olive Yang, a Chinese housewife turned Narco-warlord. A smuggler since she was 19, she built a private army called "Olive's Boys" and took over an entire Burmese Province in the 1950s. Alongside rogue KMT army units, she helped jumpstart the infamous "Golden Triangle" Drug Trafficking Routes.

Read more wikipedia.org

via reddit.com

VBJL4 TIL that in 2002, under Saddam Hussein's regime, Iraq reputedly held an election. Official Iraqi statistics said all 11.4 million registered voters voted to re-elect Saddam, with 0 voting for other candidates and 0 abstaining.
VML6B TIL that cats have accents. Phonetics researchers have suggested that cats and their humans develop a “pidgin language” together to communicate, which may influence regional variations in cat vocalizations.
R7wo4 TIL of Jeff Erlanger (1970-2007), who was a quadriplegic child who appeared on an episode of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood in 1981. Almost 20 years later, when Rogers was inducted into the Television Hall of Fame in 1999, Erlanger was a surprise guest to introduce him.
NLyP TIL Cameron Lyle, a college senior track and field athlete was awarded the NCAA’s Award of Valor in 2013 for ending his collegiate career one month early, ending his chances for a gold medal, in order to be a bone marrow donor to a 28 year old father with acute lymphoblastic leukemia.
0eDN TIL that a fourteen year old paper boy collecting money for delivering was given a nickel as payment. When he felt that the nickel was lighter than usual, he dropped it and the nickel opened, revealed a series of numbers. The FBI linked the coin to a Russian spy who was then jailed for 45 years.