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TIL that there were only 21 days between the first atomic bomb test on July 16th and bombing Hiroshima on August 6th in the summer of 1945

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VB5ZG TIL: In the "Battle of the 300 Champions" between Sparta and Argos in 546 BC. Rather than wasting the lives of their armies, both agreed to use 300 men and sent the rest home. 2 Argives and 1 Spartan survived. The Argives left thinking they won, so technically the Spartan was the last man standing.
VBKp8 TIL the philosopher, David Hume, served as secretary to general James St Clair in a planned invasion of Canada, which is soon cancelled; then they invade France, where several comic events ensue, and the military career of Hume end ingloriously, without any significant military achievements.
loPM5 TIL that one of the reasons the Cottingley Fairies photos weren't revealed as fake for so long (over 60 years) was because the girls who took them didn't want to make a fool out of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who had believed they were real and wrote about the fairies as a psychic phenomenon
E1Mxx TIL the solar storm of 1859 caused the aurora borealis to be seen as far south as the Caribbean and was bright enough to wake miners in the Rockies. The geomagnetic current was also strong enough to power telegraph systems. A similar event happening today would cause widespread blackouts and damage.
jNAen TIL activists tried to eliminate birthright citizenship from the constitution in 1942 to strip Japanese-Americans of their citizenship, claiming their “racial characteristics” made them “unfit for American citizenship.” It was defeated thanks to a coalition between the JACL, NAACP, and ACLU.