› added 6 years ago

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TIL of Eddie Chapman - a professional criminal and prolific womanizer who became an important British double agent during WWII. He once convinced both British and German intelligence to house and pay each of his two fiancees in opposite warzones. He is the only Briton to win the German Iron Cross.

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wgM7 TIL of a piece of music that the Vatican did not want copied down. Doing so was punishable by Excommunication. Mozart memorized it by ear at 14 and the ban was lifted
j8Aj TIL that in 2010 Microsoft banned a user from Xbox Live for putting Fort Gay (A real location in West Virginia) as his address. Microsoft refused to believe that Fort Gay actually existed, and eventually took an appeal from the towns Mayor David Thompson for the issue to be corrected.
p8Y74 TIL the Chinese Government controls the central heating for every home in Beijing
9Ymxr TIL that a "loose cannon" is an apt name for something out of control: when an 8000 pound cannon came loose from a mooring on a ship, it could wreak terror on the crew as it wiped out anything or person in its path and destroyed the ship's walls
YplwP TIL Wolves can be scared away from livestock pens using Wacky Inflatable Arm Men