› added 5 years ago

98

TIL the Summer Olympics have only been cancelled three times since the beginning of the 20th century and all three because of war.

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x68ek TIL in 1945 Ireland's president and prime minister both offered official condolences to Germany upon the death of Hitler. They were the only Western European democracy to do so and were described at "indifferent to the Nazi persecution of the Jews."
4kLvo TIL that there is a species of octopus called the mimic octopus that can imitate the appearance and movements of other sea creatures, including snakes and lionfish.
Q7nE TIL that Stalin tried to kill Yugoslavian leader Tito 22 times. Tito then wrote him a letter reading “Stop sending people to kill me. If you don’t stop sending killers, I’ll send one to Moscow, and I won’t have to send a second.”
woXe8 TIL in the 1970s, France acted as Saddam Hussein's "chief arms broker"; they sold $25billion in weapons to Iraq of which most was advanced fighters and missiles (close to $100bil in today's money)
bgj0 TIL its illegal for drug companies to advertise to consumers almost everywhere in the world. The only exceptions are the US and New Zealand.