› added 7 years ago

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TIL the Soviets invaded Japan after they conquered Berlin and took an area bigger than France in half the time it took Germany to (3 weeks vs 6), and that the nukes were only half the reason Japan surrendered, this was the other half.

XEP9R TIL That Tracy Chapman, multi-platinum and four time Grammy Award winning artist, says she credits the inspiration to learn guitar as a child came from an American telivision variety show called "Hee Haw" that featured country music and themed backdrop. (corrected)
OoLmX TIL: An extinct bird came back from the dead. The white-throated rail was flightless and got completely wiped out when the island sunk below the sea around 136,000 years ago. But, the same bird re-appeared when sea levels fell again a few thousand years later, and again lost the ability to fly.
Y7DaB TIL that ambergris (whale poop) has been used in perfumes for centuries including today's popular Chanel No. 5
yVeZV TIL US Army Maj. Gen. William Dean, captured by N. Kor. troops in 1950, was the most superior US officer captured since the fall of the Philippines. Before his capture, he led troops in brutal urban combat, knocked out a tank with a hand grenade, and survived over a month in the wild, losing 80 lbs.
yQlVv TIL J. Edgar Hoover recommended that Einstein be kept out of America by the Alien Exclusion Act, but he was overruled by the U.S. State Department. FBI spied on Einstein for 22 years and kept a dossier with 1400+ Pages on him.