› added 8 years ago

622

TIL Stalin’s body double was teased in school because of the resemblance with Stalin

Read more rarehistoricalphotos.com

via reddit.com

0dEvA TIL that P.T. Barnum noticed people were lingering too long at his exhibits so he posted signs indicating "This Way to the Egress". Not knowing that "Egress" was another word for "Exit", people followed the signs to what they assumed was a fascinating exhibit and ended up outside.
4VN6 TIL an extra from Hobo With A Shotgun had been blind from birth. He had recently had eye surgery to fix it and the first thing he ever saw was a scene from the film being shot.
xVp40 TIL: Ernest Hemingway ended up being quarantined for most of the Summer with his wife and his mistress in 1926
PYkXZ TIL during the Vietnam War, the U.S. spent roughly $3 million each year on weather modification campaigns designed to draw out the monsoon season and even one campaign involved an attempt to flood the Ho Chi Minh Trail, the main route that enemy fighters were using to deliver their supplies.
8aNea TIL The characterization of Emperor Palpatine in the Star Wars saga as an ambitious and ruthless politician dismantling a democratic republic to achieve supreme power is in part inspired by Julius Caesar, Napoleon Bonaparte, and Adolf Hitler. Other elements of the character come from Richard Nixon.