› added 10 months ago

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TIL: That despite intense behind the scenes actions, Pope Pius XII was resolved not to issue any public pronouncement that took sides in WWII; this first manifested itself in a refusal to explicitly condemn the German invasion of Poland.

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e8Y5 TIL - “Rapper’s Delight”, at over 14 minutes long, was recorded in one take.
GALB4 TIL: that in Switzerland, it’s illegal to own just one guinea pig because they get lonely.
5V0lQ TIL that Mecca was laid siege in 1979 by a man who thought he was the prophesied Mahdi (the eschatological basis of Frank Herbert's Muad'Dib) and this attack triggered the conservative transformation away from liberal reforms, for Saudi culture, for decades.
XEODQ Children have energy levels greater than endurance athletes.
mpmp TIL that in 1900, Italian King Umberto met a restaurant owner who looked exactly like himself. After speaking, they learned that they were born on the same day, of the same year, in the same town, and married a wife of the same name. They would both go on to be murdered the next day.