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TIL that Operation Cherry Blossoms at Night was a 1945 plan developed by Shirō Ishii to wage biological warfare upon civilian population centers in Southern California in the United States during the final months of World War II, using plague fleas from unit 731.

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r0B0 TIL that in 1975, North Korean embassy staff in Australia crashed their Mercedes, and when they went to the nearest house for help they were aghast to find that that they had knocked on the door of the South Korean ambassador’s residence.
9Y5b7 TIL that Benjamin Franklin used chess as a means of learning Italian. He would play games with a friend who was also studying the language. The winner of their match assigned a task to the loser; such as making them learn some Italian grammar, which had to be performed before their next match.
lLdK TIL when composing the song “‘39”, Queen guitarist Brian May jokingly asked bassist John Deacon to play the double bass on the recording. Deacon didn’t got the joke and actually learned the instrument. In two days.
QWK9 TIL in WWII a woman-only Soviet bomber regiment were nicknamed the “Night Witches” by German soldiers. For a successful bombing run, the Witches would cut the engine of their archaic and noisy aircraft. Gliding in, they would release their bombs before the enemy even knew they were there.
69DGJ TIL Grace Darling, a lighthouse keeper’s daughter, became a national heroine in 1838 for helping rescue survivors of the Forfarshire shipwreck off the coast of Northumberland.