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TIL In 1940 9,169 British people were killed in road traffic accidents during the wartime blackout. One person died that year for every 200 vehicles on the road; today the figure is one for every 20,000.

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nw8P TIL Lewis Lee Millett deserted the US Army when he thought they would not enter WW2 and joined the Canadian Army to fight. After the US Army joined WW2 he transferred back. In the Korean war he would be awarded the Medal Of Honor for leading the last major bayonet charge in American history.
VMVKm TIL German biologist Stefan Lanka, who believed that measles was a "psychosomatic illness", announced that he would pay 100,000 Euros to anyone who could prove that measles was a virus. German doctor David Barden proved him wrong and Lanka was ordered by the court to pay the money as promised.
0dXoM TIL that the Zuni people in New Mexico speak a language that is supposedly similar to Japanese and differ in terms of language, culture, blood types and religion from neighboring tribes. It has been theorized that the Zuni were in contact with pre-Columbus Japanese settlers.
x06o TIL in 1971 someone in Pennsylvania tried to sue Satan for having “threatened him, caused him misery, impeded his course in life, and generally precipitated his downfall.” The case was dismissed, partly because it couldn’t be shown that Satan lived in the court’s jurisdiction.
OXe TIL someone skied down Mt. Everest