› added 11 years ago

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TIL Wilhelm II , the German Kaiser one of the most hated men who ever lived, while absconding to Holland received a letter from a small boy telling him how much the boy loved him in spite of what others thought. Kaiser was so touched he called the boy to Holland and ended up marrying his mother.

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5VV1B TIL that from 1968 to the early 1990s, the BVD (intelligency agency of the Netherlands) created the "Marxist–Leninist Party of the Netherlands", a a fake pro-China communist party in set up to develop contacts with the Chinese government for espionage purposes. The fake party even had newspapers.
W74Y4 Today I learned that in ancient Egypt there were structures now called Nileometers used to monitor flood potential of the Nile. They did this to predict harvest quality, flood danger, and to keep an eye on water clarity.
v1yJ4 TIL that Michael Rockefeller, son of Senator Nelson Rockefeller and great-grandson of oil magnate John Rockefeller, was very likely eaten by cannibals in New Guinea, and it's speculated that Nelson's mother paid a private investigator $250,000 for recovering Michael's skull from the tribe.
jyeQ TIL that Samuel L. Jackson was supposed to have an afro in Pulp Fiction. He was losing his hair so needed a wig. A PA went to get an Afro-style wig. The PA mistook the Afro for Jheri curls. Before they were able to return it, Jackson convinced Tarantino to keep it so he ended up wearing Jheri Curls.
VMZjG TIL: The 'secret' nuclear missile launch code during the Cold War was '00000000'