› added 3 years ago

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TIL The First Black Superstar, Josephine Baker, was a singer, actress, spy, civil rights hero and mother to a rainbow tribe of 12 children

KObrJ TIL that in 1906, The Daily Mail hired novelist William Le Queux to write a story of the most likely path for a hypothetical German invasion of England. When that path went mostly through areas with low 'Daily Mail' readership, they ordered it rewritten to more directly impact their existing readers
VkmG TIL: In 1981, a woman was kidnapped and repeatedly raped by deprogrammers that her parents hired in attempt to remove her from her relationship. Her charges against her parents and the deprogrammers were dismissed in trial.
Y7MQW TIL that “under the weather,” meaning, feeling ill, is from sailors. On the high seas when the wind blow hard and rough water crewmen would go below deck and down to their cabins in order to ride out the storm to avoid seasickness. They literally retreat to a location “under the weather"
rRxXe TIL: Internet Memes are now used in ways formerly used in leaflet propaganda. Targeted Internet memes "hack" people's attention and aid in sewing discord. Memes do this by utilizing classic psychological warfare tactics, such as those used in propaganda via analogue leaflets.
WkpYN TIL that Natalie Portman speaks Hebrew(native), English, French, German, Spanish and Japanese. As a student, she co-authored two research papers that were published in scientific journals.