› added 1 year ago

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TIL there are more american robins in the US than there are people.

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LkYkQ TIL tattoos in Japan (Irezumi) were banned from 1868-1948. Traditional Japanese tattoos were associated with the yakuza (Japanese Mafia) as they were used to mark the skin of outlaws. To this day they retain a stigma of criminality and many businesses still ban customers with tattoos.
4Abw TIL Henry III received a polar bear from King Haakon of Norway in 1252.
PYOLE TIL Navajo was once in danger of losing a lot of speakers, but the Navajo nation set up programs to teach the language as well as many bilingual schools. Now there are even institutes, community colleges, and technical universities with classes in the Navajo language
gMVvX TIL Imperial Germany had made plans to invade the US between 1897 and 1903 just to gain some Carribean colonies.
XEA8X TIL that chess grandmaster Nigel Short played a series of 8 online chess games against an anonymous user and lost every single game. He believes the anonymous player was the legendary Bobby Fischer, who was living in exile in Iceland and hadn't played professionally in years.