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TIL of the traditional "Honors of War", where surrendering armies would leave the battlefield with banners waving honorably and their band playing the enemy's anthem. After winning the American Revolution, George Washington famously refused to allow the British to play an American or French song

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R7pE7 TIL that after the Great Fire of Rome during the reign of Nero, Lyons sent Rome a large sum of money to help. A year later, Lyons itself suffered a great fire, and Nero send them the same amount of money.
BjLK TIL that, due to a wartime shortage of copper, the Manhattan Project borrowed almost 15,000 tons of silver from the US Treasury to make wiring for the electromagnets in isotope-separating mass spectrometers. The wire, worth over a billion dollars at the time, was removed and returned after the war.
DW4J TIL Mount Kosciuszko was thought to be the highest mountain in Australia until Mount Townsend was found to be slightly taller. Rather than re-educating the public that Townsend was the new highest mountain, the New South Wales Lands Department simply switched their names.
rJnd TIL The Gingko Biloba species of tree is 270 million years old. It rarely suffers disease or insect attack and was one of the only living things to survive the Hiroshima nuclear bombing. The trees healed quickly and are still alive today.
e06bb TIL the Founder of Kodak, George Eastman, insisted the company use a 13 month, 28 day per month calendar. This system would be used by Kodak as the official date system from 1928 to 1989.