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TIL the Japanese Empire contained 463 million people in 1943, even more so than the British Empire at its greatest extent (412 million)

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BDrD TIL of Sarah Rector who in 1913 at age 10 was known as “Richest Colored Girl in the world”. After being given a land grant that unknowingly produced 2,500 barrels of oil a day. Soon she received a daily revenue of $300 (approx $2.6 million annually today) and marriage offers worldwide at age 12
bxr9 TIL: The Navajo code is the only spoken military code never to have been deciphered. During WWII, since only 30 non-Navajo people could understand Navajo, the US used Navajos as code talkers. They could encode, transmit, and decode a three-line message in 20 seconds, versus 30 minutes for machines.
Y99v TIL The most sophisticated bomb ever encountered by the FBI destroyed Harvey’s Wagon Wheel casino in Lake Tahoe in 1980. The device included 28 toggle switches , a float switch, tilt sensor, sensors and spring switches casing screws and joints, and more
OGNbR TIL that the Olympic Games weren't the only athletic competition held in ancient Greece. Three other contests—the Pythian Games, the Nemean Games and the Isthmian Games—were also held. Together, these four competitions were known as the Panhellenic Games.
PYaJL TIL that an English inventor invented a thermal shielding material, called Starlite, which was able to withstand extreme heat (10,000 degrees C), but never revealed its composition in fear of reverse engineering and losing control of rights to the material.