› added 5 years ago

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TIL that the first pocket calculator [Curta (Type I) mechanical calculator] was invented by the Jewish inventor Curt Herzstark in Buchenwald concentration camp during WWII. The Nazis planned to make a present of it to Hitler as a gift after the successful end of the war.

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MaDA TIL There is a man drought in Australia. 100,000 fewer men than women.
JGWV TIL a scientist found two snowflakes identical.
b7vE TIL that White Star crewmembers on the Titanic were considered fired as of the moment it sank
d8mWB TIL in 1923, a dog named Bobbie was separated from his owners and lost. Six months later, Bobbie appeared on their doorstep mangy and scrawny with feet worn to the bone; he walked over 2500 miles (4000 km) of plains, desert and mountains an average of approximately 14 miles (23 km) per day.
neXQP TIL the HMS Belfast, which served in D-Day and fought in the Korean War, expected to be scrapped in 1967, so the Imperial War Museum, the National Maritime Museum, and the Ministry of Defence all decided that it'd be preserved. Now, it is a museum on the River Thames.