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TIL Before West Germany (the trizone) got its anthem, carnival songs were played to officially represent Germany. One such song was "We're the natives of Trizonesia" which is about making out with girls, to which the Allied officers, not speaking German, rose from their seats out of respect.

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50YQ TIL during the 1950s, the U.S. military tested nuclear weapons so close to Las Vegas, that you could clearly see the mushroom clouds from downtown Hotels. This became a temporary tourist attraction.
Wkev8 TIL Scientists managed to edit human embryos, freeing them from a piece of faulty DNA which caused a deadly heart disease that ran in families. The embryos were allowed to develop for 5 days before they stopped the experiment.
N7E6N TIL that workers in Cuban cigar factories in the early 1900s employed 'lectores' to read to them while they worked. The reading materials were often literary or political, ranging from socialists newspapers to Shakespearean plays - sometimes leading to clashes with anti-communist factory owners.
Z9dG TIL that in 1976, 3 guys hijacked a school bus filled with 27 kids and an adult, and buried them alive. All 3 were convicted and the children were saved.
b94v4 TIL of Merck, the 352 year old pharmaceutical company responsible for the introduction of cocaine, morphine and invention of MDMA