› added 11 years ago

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TIL that a tribe once surrendered to Julius Caesar, only to launch an attack later on. As punishment for the deceit, he sold the entire surviving population of about 53,000 people into slavery.

R0V6 TIL that when asked why she had shot 11 people at her school, the shooter, 16-year old Brenda Ann Spencer, replied, “I don’t like Mondays.”
gM9EX TIL the film U-571 caused issues in the UK. It depicted British sailors as American. The film depicts the capture of the first naval enigma machine. In reality, the US had not joined the war at this point. The US did not capture a naval enigma machine until long after the code had been broken.
epDo5 TIL: Arlington National Cemetery is built on land initially owned by George Washington’s stepson and later owned by Robert E. Lee. The land was seized during the Civil War to serve as a burial site for the large amount of war casualties.
d8kDr TIL that there is an unusual instrument called the celeste/celesta which looks like a piano, but has metal plates like a xylophone, instead of strings, inside. This instrument is what gives the Nutcracker's Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies, and the Harry Potter theme, their distinct sound.
Bble TIL that Francis Crick, co-discoverer of the structure of the DNA molecule and Nobel prize laureate, sent a letter accompanied by a cheque for 10 guineas to Winston Churchill, saying that the money should be used for the establishment of a brothel at the Cambridge University, instead of a chapel.