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TIL Inmates of a nazi labour camp in northern Germany's marshes were banned from singing political songs, so they wrote a "soldier" hymn to themselves being "peat bog soldiers". When the SS made them perform it at the "concentration camp circus" the anti-nazi song was so catchy, the SS sang along.

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OokRL TIL during China’s Ming Dynasty, powdered smallpox scabs were blown up the noses of the healthy. The patients would then develop a mild case of the disease, & from then on were immune to it. Although the technique had a 0.5–2.0% mortality rate, it was better than the diseases 20–30% mortality rate.
Y7x7Z TIL that FDR led an insurgency against NY's Tammany Hall machine when he became state senator in 1910, costing him the US Senate primary in 1914. Only after he became NY Governor in 1928 could he bring corruption investigations, ending Tammany's more than a century of control over the NY Dem Party.
a89K9 TIL: Terra firma-forme dermatosis (TFFD), sometimes referred to as Duncan's dirty dermatosis, is a condition characterized by asymptomatic, hyperpigmented, dirtlike plaques that are resistant to regular washing with soap and water but easily rub off with 70% isopropyl alcohol
vPeOr TIL Swiss Cow Fighting in Valais features Herens cows in dominance battles. Unlike bullfighting with human-bull clashes, this is cow vs. cow, with blunted horns for pushing contests. Elimination occurs if a cow backs down or refuses to fight, aiming for one standing winner after 40 minutes.
awnGy TIL The term checkmate is, according to the Barnhart Etymological Dictionary, an alteration of the Persian phrase “shāh māt” (شاه مات) which means, literally, “the King is helpless”