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TIL that In 1980 Keele University, in response to education spending cuts, issued a unilateral Declaration of Independence. The “Free Republic of Keele” declared themselves independent of the UK and issued students with new passports, enforced border control and wrote a new national anthem

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oRy57 TIL that the 10,000 steps a day was an arbitrary number that came from a marketing campaign for an early pedometer launched ahead of the 1964 Tokyo Olympics. The number was chosen because the Japanese character for 10,000 resembles a person walking.
p8VAb TIL nearly 60 y.o. combat instructors Bill Sykes and Dan Fairbairn would introduce themselves to spy trainees during WWII by descending a staircase into a ballroom. They would pretend to fall and roll down the stairs, but pop up at the bottom with a pistol in one hand and knife in the other.
8ePD8 TIL: The sahara desert was full of life several thousand years ago and there's even ancient rock art in the sahara that shows animals that only live in wetlands. Some historians believe the cultural memory of the green sahara drying up still exists today as the story of the garden of eden.
0dbp1 TIL: Sōhei warrior monks were influential for centuries in Japan with warring clans often enlisting these monks for warfare due to their fighting ability due to their isolation and fanaticism. However, disputes between monk temples were common which led to numerous fatal inter temple battles.
9YbPG TIL: No one ever said the Titanic was unsinkable...