› added 6 months ago

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TIL of Harpalus, Alexander the Great's childhood friend and accountant. Expecting Alexander to die in India, he began embezzling huge sums to support his kingly lifestyle only to flee when he heard Alexander was returning. He arrived in Athens with 6k mercenaries, 30 ships and 5k talents in cash

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0d4L1 TIL About Montgomery Meigs, Quartermaster General of the Army: He was one of the principal architects of Arlington National Cemetery; the choice of its location, on Robert E. Lee's family estate, Arlington House, was partly designed as a gesture to humiliate Lee for siding with the Confederacy.
b9MP9 TIL, that between 1937 and 1938 111,091 ethnic Poles living in USSR were executed as spies. To speed up the process local telephone books were used to find Polish sounding names. Another 28,744 were sent to Gulags.
wgaY TIL that in 1382, a French bookseller named Nicholas Flamel claimed to have transformed lead into gold after decoding an ancient book of alchemy. True or not, historical records show that Flamel did come into considerable wealth around this time, and donated his riches to charity.
gXNW TIL that jurors can find a defendant “not guilty” regardless of evidence if they believe the law broken is unjust.
EgWrp TIL the 1966 song "River Deep – Mountain High" which was written by Phil Spector, cost a then unheard of $22,000 ($207,000 in 2023), and required 21 session musicians. It was reported that the Beach Boys' Brian Wilson attended the session, where he sat "transfixed" and "did not say a word."