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TIL Lafayette, from the American and French Revolution, was born Marie-Joseph Paul Yves Roch Gilbert du Montier de La Fayette. He joked, "It's not my fault. I was baptized like a Spaniard, with the name of every conceivable saint who might offer me protection in battle."

MME7 TIL: That witches were originally depicted as riding a broomstick as a euphemism riding the devils dick
djAE TIL When jogging, British footballing legend Stanley Matthews would always wear shoes that contained lead, so that when playing football his feet would feel remarkably light, giving him the impression he could run and dribble faster.
OL6R TIL at the Battle of Agincourt, around 5,000 English archers faced off against 10,000 armored French knights and men-at-arms (who had a total force of 30,000 soldiers). The battle resulted in around 10,000 French losses, while the English suffered only 400 casualties.
lo6Q1 TIL during WW2 when General Patton got in trouble for slapping a shell shocked soldier, his punishment was to command an inflatable army of decoy tanks in England to divert Germany's attention from a potential attack at Normandy. This proved to be essential to the success of the D-Day invasions.
GAMRG TIL as Spielberg was filming Jurassic Park's climatic scene as originally scripted (with the velociraptors defeated by Dr. Alan Grant & John Hammond), he had the last-minute idea to bring back the T-Rex for the climax. As an "off-the-cuff thing", the physical effects had to be setup in about 24 hrs.