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TIL: There are 53 "Thankful" villages in the UK where all their members of the armed forces survived WW1. There are 14 which are "Doubly Thankful" having also lost no-one in WW2.

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6EAyX TIL Emperor Commodus went insane, renaming everything after himself. Rome became Commodiana, the Legionaries > Commodianae, The Roman Senate > Commodian Senate, Roman > Commodian, and every month renamed after him. Eventually, the Prefects had enough and paid a wrestler to strangle him to death.
e0Qvk TIL that the atomic bombs were almost dropped on Japan by British Avro Lancaster bombers. Hap Arnold, head of USAAF, insisted that an American plane be used, and the B-29 was modified to accept the huge nuclear devices.
J1vrk TIL In 2002 Stephen Hawking emailed young researcher Thomas Hertog that his book A Brief History of Time is wrong. Hertog and Hawking then collaborated closely for the next 20 years, resulting in the book "On the Origin of Time" in 2023
P188J TIL of Westveleteren Abbey 12, a beer ranked "Best Beer in the World" in 2005. It is brewed in small quantities by Belgian monks to financially support their monastery. Sales are limited to one order per 60 days, per person, per license plate and phone number. The bottles have no label
VbMk TIL during WW2 the British maintained an entirely fictional army, the 4th Army, that they successfully used to draw German forces away from invasion targets on multiple occasions, including the Normandy landings