› added 4 years ago

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Til: A male ferret is called a hob; a female ferret is a jill. A spayed female is a sprite, a neutered male is a gib, and a vasectomised male is known as a hoblet. Ferrets under one year old are known as kits. A group of ferrets is known as a "business".

xGl1 TIL I learned of the Soldier’s Poem, an epitaph often inscribed on falled WWII soldier’s graves: “And When he gets to heaven, To Saint Peter he will tell; One more Soldier reporting, sir. I’ve served my time in Hell!”
m1VQx TIL that during the Battle of the Chateauguay, an American officer demanded his Canadian opponents surrender. However, the American officer had not properly displayed the truce flag. So, the Canadian forces simply shot and killed him and then went on to win the battle.
V8JD TIL that after the Greek War of Independence began, the Ottoman reaction was so virulent that the Patriarch of the Greek Orthodox Church was publicly hanged in Constantinople, and a imam from the city of Smyrna was executed after he refused to issue a fatwa justifying the murder of Christians.
m14AE TIL that if a child has peanut allergies, there is a good chance it is because their parents followed bad medical advice to avoid exposing them for several years after birth.
9YnB6 TIL 99 years ago 4,500 tonnes of a mixture incl. ammonium nitrate fertilizer exploded at BASF in Oppau, Germany, killing 500-600 people, injuring 2000 more. The explosion, estimated to have 1–2 kilotonnes TNT equivalent, could still be heard more than 300km away in north-eastern France and Munich.