› added 4 years ago

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TIL of Robert Maheu, an American businessman and lawyer, who worked for the FBI and CIA, and as the chief executive of Nevada operations for the industrialist Howard Hughes. He recruited the mob to assassinate Fidel Castro and his investigative agency was a model for television's Mission Impossible.

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7rMoM TIL the influenza epidemic of 1918 was called the “Spanish Flu” because Spain was neutral during World War I and was the only country with a free press able to report on the disease. People just assumed the flu, which killed more people than WWI, began in Spain, but it’s unknown where it started.
XZa6 TIL that in 1985 Soviets ended a hostage crisis within 4 weeks by castrating & killing a relative of a Hezbollah leader then sending the severed organs. A reporter later said, “This is the way the Soviets operate. They do things - they don’t talk. And this is the language the Hezbollah understand.”
vQVB TIL that when the US navy banned alcohol on ships in July 1914, they held one last massive party and invited ships from several nations to help drink the last of the booze. Many of the participants in the party would become enemies weeks later when WWI broke out.
7rJa7 TIL that the Ocean sunfish (in french we call it: moonfish) is one of the heaviest known bony fishes in the world, weighing up to a ton, for an average length of 1.8 m (5.9 ft).
Me0Ym TIL that the Mary in "Mary Had a Little Lamb" was a real person. Her name was Mary Sawyer, and she brought a lamb to her school, where it was seen by John Roulstone, who wrote the basis for the nursery rhyme.