5VR0r TIL the revolution that brought about fall of Communism in Czechoslovakia was triggered by the killing of Martin Šmíd, a student at the University of Prague who was killed during a police raid on a student demonstration on November 17, 1989. Šmíd, however, wasn't real.
M7pBA TIL dense bedbug colonies go extinct in captivity as the adult females die from traumatic insemination.
j6bGR TIL Microsoft invested two years and about US$1 billion developing the Kin, a line of mobile phones that was briefly sold in 2010. After only 48 days on the market, Microsoft discontinued the Kin line in June 2010 due to poor sales, They blamed Verizon for not promoting the phones actively enough.
0dx0A TIL as part of the larger 1968 Tet Offensive, the US Embassy was raided by Vietcong commandos. According to a first-hand account, the defending American force included 3 members of the OSA, one of whom was armed with a 9mm Beretta submachine gun.
grb0X TIL the 1986 Bangles song "Walk Like An Egyptian" was created on an English Channel ferry in rough seas. Songwriter Liam Sternberg watched passengers striking poses like Egyptian tomb paintings as they tried to keep their balance.
LQGr0 TIL the reason "Japanese Bonus Tracks" were so common was because CD and Album production was more expensive in Japan. Bonus Tracks were an incentive for Japanese consumers to not import the cheaper foreign editions.
ANBRa TIL villagers on a South Korean island celebrated the birthday of an 800-year-old ginkgo tree that has a 'wife' in North Korea
QN57k TIL about the Melungeon. A mixed raced people from colonial era found in Tennessee, Virginia, and North Carolina. They have European, Black, Native American, and East India backgrounds. Many pass as Whites as their ancestors did.
b6bDZ TIL The Virginia Racial Integrity Act of 1924, which imposed a "one drop rule" to count as colored, permitted up to 1/16 American Indian ancestry because the Virginia elites liked to claim descent from Pocahontas
DQkOe TIL Jamie Wardley and Andy Moss Etched onto the Normandy Beaches the Human Silhouettes of 9,000 Fallen Soldiers to Commemorate Peace Day in 2013. It was called ‘The Fallen 9,000’.
m1bGY TIL 60% of the global cocoa supply comes from Côte d’Ivoire and Ghana, where more than 1.5 million children work on cocoa farms.
yV9Xe TIL that in China ‘pretend work’ firms exist where unemployed people pay US$4 a day to sit at desks and pretend to work in an office.