› added 11 years ago

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TIL That in some regions withing China farmers have to pollinate apple trees by hand. This is due to the lack of any bees, which is in turn due to mass extermination of “pests” carried out by Mao Zedong during the great leap forward. (more links in comments).

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lKg7 TIL that one unofficial method of defending merchant vessels against Somali pirates is to blast Britney Spears music. And it has been reported to be effective.
Me6wW TIL 17th-century Europeans knew teen pregnancy was dangerous for women; Shakespeare may have written Juliet’s age as 13 wanting to marry Romeo in secret to shock Elizabethan audiences
Q7Wd TIL ~1 in 5 British children are conceived on Ikea mattresses
a865A TIL about John Bradmore, a criminal who managed to successfully remove a bodkin arrow that had been lodged in King Henry V’s face. Henry went on to survive and defeat the French at the Battle of Agincourt.
BRXd TIL in 1983, North Korea tried to assassinate the President of South Korea with explosives. One of the assassins tried to kill himself with a grenade, failed, and became Burma’s longest serving prisoner.