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TIL Winston Churchill got Iran to change its name to Persia, to avoid confusion with Iraq during WW2

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via reddit.com

Qdek TIL: When Catherine di Medici was queen of France, she kept a ‘Flying Squad’ of 80 women tasked with sleeping with powerful men to extract their secrets.
DQXJV TIL that the singer Duffy disappeared from the spotlight for years to recover from being "raped and drugged and held hostage over some days"
gr0Ay TIL that the hagfish is the only known vertebrate animal with a skull but no spine. Instead it has separate bone sections in its back that function as a spine. They're also capable of absorbing nutrients from the surrounding water directly through their skin.
gM94y TIL Sales of packaged or processed foods are declining. Many Americans are turning away from foods whose ingredients aren’t “fresh” or “natural.” There is a mounting distrust of so-called “Big Food”, the large food companies and legacy brands that millions of consumers have relied on for so long.
Y7G8d TIL of the Three Hundred and Thirty Five Years' War - a bloodless war between the Netherlands and the Isles of Scilly that lasted from 1651 until peace was officially declared in 1986