› added 10 years ago

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TIL that the founding members of the NAACP had more white people than black. They were abolitionists working for the equality of all races in America.

oBOWo TIL in the late 90s Daimler, the parent company of Mercedes-Benz and Maybach, was working on a 12-litre 24-cylinder engine for Maybach cars, which would have made around 800 hp and 1200 Nm (885 lb-ft) of torque.
0d9vv TIL about Saint Josaphat (aka Būdhasaf), a legendary Christian saint whose life is based on Gautama Buddha, the founder of Buddhism. His life story tells of how Josaphat, a son of an Indian kind that persecuted the Christian Church in his kingdom, converted to Christianity.
dBWZ TIL the Roman emperor Nero took a liking to a young boy named Sporus, who he had castrated and married because he bore a resemblance to the emperor’s former wife, who Nero had allegedly murdered. After Nero’s death, Sporus took his own life out of humiliation.
9YPPQ TIL of Major Digby Tatham-Warter, a British major who brought an umbrella into battle, using it to stop an armoured vehicle by poking the driver's eye and saving a chaplain. When a fellow soldier complained about it, he answered "oh my goodness, but what if it rains?"
BgmED TIL that in the 1400s, China, after building the world’s most advanced navy, turned inward under a form of Chinese isolationism called Haijin (sea ban). Fearing foreign influence, leaders banned private trade, large ships, and dismantled the fleet, missing centuries of growth.