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TIL that during the Cold War the Soviet Union had many “closed cities” restricted for foreigners and tightly controlled for citizens and that even today Russia still keeps a great number of its closed cities in the former Soviet republics.

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Z8j7Q TIL That when Ben Rea (UK) died in May 1988, he bequeathed his £7-million ($12.5-million) fortune to Blackie, the last surviving of the 15 cats he shared his mansion with. The millionaire antiques dealer and recluse refused to recognize his family in his will. He left his wealth to his cats.
xrYw TIL R. Lee Ermey was initially hired only to be the technical advisor on the set of Full Metal Jacket. Kubrick changed his mind after Ermey put together an instructional tape, in which he went on an extended tirade towards several extras
VM6A4 TIL, the Roald Dahl museum has letters of correspondence between him and a postman who had the name Willy Wonka, who contacted the author shortly before the release of the original movie.
d5p7 TIL that the Incans, despite having a large empire, had no currency and no merchant class; citizens paid the government with labor and received necessities in return
KYvYG TIL that in the early 2000s, a US nuclear submarine, "Greenville" had catastropically collided with a japanse high school training vessel. During a VIP demonstration voyage, after performing an emergency surfacing - the submarine sliced the training vessel in half.