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TIL Vietnam War POW Doug Hegdahl pretended to be illiterate to fool his captors, who believed him to be so stupid that they gave him almost free rein of the camp. He was able to secretly memorize the details of about 256 POWs to the tune of “Old MacDonald,” which he still remembers.

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OGPoe TIL researchers have found that the ancient Romans manipulated chemistry to make "quicklime" that caused "self healing" concrete, thereby preserving ancient Roman architecture, and answering why so many of their structures remain standing when modern structures fail.
epvRD TIL that under French colonial rule in Morocco, settlers had 36.5 km of sewers built for them, while Moroccans got only 4.3 km. Moroccans paid 24% more per hectare for land that was 50 times smaller, and they were legally banned from purchasing land from French settlers.
ed9L TIL Spielberg wrote a sequel to E.T. in which Elliot receives a radio signal that leads him to believe E.T. is back. Unbeknownst to him the signal comes from an evil alien race that landed on Earth after picking up E.T.’s “phone home” distress call. He is then kidnapped and tortured.
wLP9E TIL in 2007, reigning Jeopardy! champion Scott Weiss purposely placed his final bet in such a way as to force the first three-way tie in the game's history. He said he knew he could have bet more and won the game, but thought it would be fun to force a tie instead.
6EMbm TIL that Kostas Sarantidis is a Greek-Vietnamese soldier who fought with the Viet Minh during the First Indochina War. He is the only foreign soldier awarded Vietnamese honour "Hero of the People's Armed Forces"