› added 6 years ago

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TIL that Ford almost bought Ferrari in the early 60's, but Enzo Ferrari killed the deal when he learned he wouldn't oversee the racing division anymore. Henry Ford II was so pissed that he directed his engineers to build a car that would beat Ferrari at Le Mans, which it did from 1966–1969.

WkN9L TIL The idea for the Red Cross came about in 1859, when a Swiss man, Henry Dunant saw the aftermath of a battle in Italy and witnessed 40,000 men dying with no medical care. 5 years later,12 governments adopted the first Geneva convention; defining medical services as “Neutral” in wartime.
yQJxe TIL: Many dentists acknowledge that for adults with good oral hygiene practices, seeing the dentist twice a year is probably more often than is really necessary. Once every 12-16 months is perfectly sufficient for many people.
logXG TIL the San Marino football team has only won one match in its entire history, and has scored 24 goals in 164 matches.
9Y66m TIL former Supreme Court Justice William O. Douglas claimed that people acting on the orders of President Richard Nixon were trying to plant marijuana in his yard so that they could stage a televised raid and force him to retire from the court, with his replacement appointed by Nixon.
N7Be6 TIL of Charondas, a Greek lawgiver from Sicily, that issued a law that anyone who brought weapons into the Assembly must be put to death. One day, he arrived at the Assembly after hunting in the countryside with a knife still attached to his belt. In order to uphold his own law, he committed suicide