› added 1 year ago

50

TIL about Project Venona, the US effort to decrypt KGB/GRU intercepts leading to some of the greatest intelligence breakthroughs during the cold war. Including exposing critical Soviet assets, (ie. the Rosenbergs, David Greenglass, and Kim Philby)

Read more nsa.gov

via reddit.com

neRNY TIL the U.S. was on the verge of drafting women into the U.S. Army Nurse Corps in anticipation of the invasion of the Japanese mainland in late 1945 during World War II
4Xr6g TIL that there are almost 50 types of programming languages.
WXVB TIL that when CBS refused to fund the music video for “Beat It,” Michael Jackson filmed the video on LA’s Skid Row, using 80 real members from the Crips and Bloods.
pxO TIL that during Christmas 1914, German and British soldiers had a truce and exchanged gifts and food on the Western Front. They even played a football match between the trenches. The Germans won 3-2.
Z8PAo TIL MacLean's magazine ranked Sir Mackenzie Bowell as Canada’s greatest bearded prime minister. It was polar bear white and somehow, despite being considerably wider than his face, a near-perfect half-circle