R5GLw TIL that China consumes 46% of cigarettes in the entire world at a rate of 2.4 trillion a year.
W7mgX TIL of historian Iris Chang, whose work on the 1937 Nanjing Massacre is credited with fundamentally shifting the Western historical record of WWII and bringing the events to global prominence.
9w9rr TIL during the Soviet invasion of Xinjiang, the Red Army fought alongside the White Russian forces against the Republic of China
nWYk9 TIL about Juan Garrido, an Afro-Spaniard conquistador. He participated in the Spanish conquest of Puerto Rico, Florida and Cortez’s siege of Tenochtitlan. Garrido is also credited as being the first person to grow and harvest wheat in North America.
4kQeR TIL : That until 1978, the Mormon church owned hospitals that kept blood donations separated by race, so white members would not receive black people's blood, disqualifying them from the priesthood.
x6G9b TIL the man who caused the 2010 Flash Crash was a 31-year-old autistic trader living with his parents in suburban London. He made $70 million from his childhood bedroom, got zero prison time, and lost most of his fortune to con men.
5VbPr TIL: When the second Tour de France was passing through the leader's home town, a mob of fans blocked the road for the other cyclists. This started an altercation that only ended when race officials fired shots in the air.
M7aoA TIL of Boquila trifoliolata, a Chilean "chameleon vine" that can mimic the leaf size, shape, color, and vein pattern of over 20 different host plants simultaneously, including, in one experiment, the leaves of plastic plants placed nearby. How it does this without touching the host is still unknown
j6loR TIL the earliest mentions of almond milk date back to the 13th century and is even mentioned under the secondary definition of "milk" in Samuel Johnson's Dictionary in 1755
0dD6A TIL that during the American Revolution, Washington didn't rely on guerilla warfare and most battles were fought in the European style.
greAX TIL it's misconception that Puritans were sexual prudes; they believed sex was reserved for marriage. In New England divorce petitions often cited male impotence and a man was once banished for refusing to have sex with his wife.
LQZo0 TIL that according to director Steven Lisberger, the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences refused to nominate Tron (1982) for a special-effects Academy Award because they were see as having “cheated by using computers”.