› added 6 years ago

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TIL George Washington established the 'Contingency Fund for Foreign Intercourse', which funded spying operations in Europe. By 1793 it consumed 12% of the federal budget.

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XPKE TIL that the Jonestown mass suicide in 1978 was responsible for the largest loss of American civilian life in a deliberate act prior to September 11, 2001
b6exp TIL The US Marshals recovered North Carolina’s copy of the U.S. Bill of Rights in 2003 via a sting operation after it was stolen from the State Capitol by a union soldier following the civil war.
MepOW TIL the wreck and artifacts of the Titanic are owned by RMS Titanic, Inc., formed in 1992 as a subsidiary of the same company that owns the popular "Bodies" traveling exhibition. The parent company filed for bankruptcy in 2018.
JK81 TIL that Picasso made his two mistresses wrestle to see who should be his lover
MemDK TIL: The common claim that the majority of soldiers in WW2 never fired their weapons or deliberately aimed above the enemy's heads (because they did not want to kill) is based on now-discredited research.