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TIL in 1937 the soviets discovered that Samuel Dickstein, a prominent NY congressman, was running a criminal business of selling illegal US passports. He got on the soviet payroll for $1,250 a month($27k today) with the codename "crook", refering to his greediness. Nobody found out until the 90's

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N7xQQ TIL that during the SARS epidemic the World Health Orginization, under pressure from China, refused to give help to Taiwan, denying them critical information and access to tests. Taiwan would end up having a 21% mortality rate, as opposed to less than 7% in China.
grvdD TIL that sandwiches are named after Lord Sandwich from the 18th century
4XNlb TIL that a Medal of Honor recipient from World War Two embarrassed a sitting US senator (who was also a KKK member) by publicly praising the efforts of African-American veterans.
69yNW TIL in 2000 a Mexican woman performed an hour-long C-section on herself with a kitchen knife after 12 hours of constant pain. After 3 attempts to cut open her abdomen, she made a 17cm vertical incision (a typical one is 10cm & horizontal). But despite no medical training, both mom & child survived.
MBW TIL that you produce so much saliva before vomiting to protect your teeth and throat from the acid in the vomit