› added 5 years ago

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TIL in 1981 the US claimed Vietnam had used chemical weapons on it's own people, saying over ten thousand had died from what was described as 'yellow rain'. The 'yellow rain' was analyzed and found to be harmless bee feces.

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1aRv8 TIL that British doctors performed a covert study of the length of time chocolates last on nurses' stations in hospitals, published in the British Medical Journal. They found that the 'decay rate' of the chocolates follows an exponential decay pattern with a half-life of 99 minutes.
r6Wd TIL in 1942 the Canadians and British Navy launched a practice invasion of France, the Dieppe raid, they lost 20% killed, 10% wounded, 30% captured. The lessons learned in that disaster lead to D-Days success.
8jLX TIL Homosexuals were officially barred from entering the US until 1990
E1K0o TIL that bacteria are becoming more tolerant of hand sanitizers, but that regular hand washing with soap is a solution: “It's the physical action of lifting and moving them off your skin, and letting them run down the drain”
1aA8P TIL that boxing promoter Don King served prison time for stomping one of his employees to death.