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TIL: During World War II, the British took a dead, homeless man out of the morgue, dressed him up as a high ranking military officer, and threw his body overboard off the coast of Spain. It was intended to mislead the Nazi’s about possible landing points for future invasions.

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Y7xZW TIL that Viggo Mortensen took on the role of Aragorn in LOTR because of his 11-year-old son's love for the books. He insisted on performing his own stunts and using a real steel sword. Additionally, he purchased and bonded with the two horses he rode during the filming.
MeX98 TIL Yves Volel was Anderson Cooper’s math teacher. Volel was a Haitian activist and political leader who fled Haiti in '65 and became a U.S. math teacher. When he returned to Haiti to run for president in ’87, he was assassinated.
m1K9o TIL about Ernst Leitz II, the CEO of Leica that helped to smuggle Jews out of Germany by "assigning" them to overseas sales offices, even if they weren't actually company employees. They were then given a free camera, helped to find jobs, and were paid a stipend until they could find work.
R7pAl TIL that sunflowers can help clean radioactive soil. Japan is using this to rehabilitate Fukashima. Almost 10,000 packets of sunflower seeds have been sold to the people of the city.
7rPx TIL Joe Strummer (frontman of The Clash) was pressured by his manager to go into hiding in France as a publicity stunt because their Scottish leg of the tour was selling slowly. Joe Strummer obliged but instead he “dicked around” in France and ran the Paris Marathon in April 1982.