› added 10 years ago

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TIL Arnold Schwarzenegger went AWOL from the military to compete in (and win) his first bodybuilding competition. His superiors, after reprimanding him, allotted him extra food and built him a gym, including a portable gym inside a tank, so he could train even when deployed. [12:23]

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Z8a1a TIL in WWII there was an army of 75,000 Chinese men stationed in Burma and trained by the American military to fight Japanese occupation in mainland Asia. They called these men, X Force.
nepAo TIL Mohandas Gandhi is one of the strongest symbols of non-violence in the 20th century. It is widely held – in retrospect – that the Indian national leader should have been the very man to be selected for the Nobel Peace Prize. He was nominated several times, but was never awarded the prize.
v1vjL TIL that former President Jimmy Carter was once denied service at a Boston restaurant for wearing a cardigan. When a Secret Service agent pointed out that this was a former President of the United States, the hostess was quoted as saying, ''All the more reason he should wear a jacket.''
oBEdL TIL John Travolta dated a woman 18 years older than he was. She died of breast cancer a year into their relationship and he helped raise her son, then 3.
MeDD7 TIL in 1959, Nikita Khrushchev described Mao Zedong to a Chinese diplomat as an "old boot that needs to be thrown out". 'Old boot' in Chinese meant prostitute, which led Chinese officials to believe Mao had been insulted as an 'old whore' due to misinterpretation.