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TIL Adolf Hitler was worried Kilroy was the codename of a high-level Allied spy & Stalin was terrified when he found "Kilroy was here" written in the VIP bathroom. The first modern instance of a meme as counter intelligence.

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bRvp TIL Philadelphia literally burns old money for electricity
KX69 TIL that during the siege of Jerusalem in 1917, the British, in an effort to capture the city from an entrenched Ottoman garrison, started to airdrop cigarettes filled with large doses of Opium, hoping that the Ottomans would be too stoned to fight. It worked.
OdlR TIL that the words for each parent “mama” and “papa” are very similar in languages all around the world and developed independently. All human babies “baby talk”, and these first sounds are mistaken as real “first” words by adults. Ex: Mandarin Chinese dad=baba, mom=mama.
p8bL4 TIL of Japanese General and Poet, Nogi Maresuke, who took Port Arthur twice - from China (1894) and Russian (1904), sought permission from the emperor to kill himself as felt he lost too many soldiers in battle, was refused, so waited eight years and committed suicide right after the emperor died.
QNgva TIL Margarine was originally named oleomargarine from Latin for oleum (olive oil) and Greek margarite ("pearl", indicating luster).