› added 6 years ago

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TIL of the English succession wars which all started because 3 of England's potential heirs drowned in the English Channel. The white ship sank in 1120 with the legitimate son of Henry 1st, William, his bastard, Richard and his daughter Matilda, on board.

D1b4P TIL one of the richest families in history was a German merchant dynasty, the Fuggers. One member, Jackob Fugger (d. 1525) ranks among the wealthiest men in modern history with $400 billion, 2% of Europe's GDP. The name Fugger was originally rendered as, Fucker.
4X0n5 TIL: Madalyn Murray O'Hair, and ardent atheist, who got prayer kicked out of American schools, was kidnapped along with her son and granddaughter and dismembered, not by religious fanatic, but by a fellow atheist, he also robbed $600,000 from the victims.
VnPQ TIL that to prevent the Germans from guessing that Enigma had been cracked, the British claimed to be using an infrared camera to locate U-boats. They were delighted to learn that the Germans responded by developing a special paint for submarines.
X0E5P TIL: stereotypes about "stupid, lazy Southerners" in the US were caused by centuries of hookworm infection which causes lethargy, anemia and iron deficiency. These, in turn, negatively affect growth and intellectual development in children.
D1w1r TIL Jeremiah Andrew Denton Jr. when making a propaganda film about how well Prisoners Of War were being treated in north Vietnam blinked in Morse code the word 'T-O-R-T-U-R-E.