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TIL that the name Sahara comes from the Arabic word for "desert" and Gobi comes from the Chinese word for "desert". The Sahara Desert and Gobi Deserts are both the "Desert Desert."

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6djl TIL that the UK, for economic reasons, sent up to 150,000 poor children to Canada, New Zealand and other parts of the Commonwealth from 1869 to the 1970s, often telling them their parents had died, and telling parents that their children had been placed for adoption elsewhere in the UK
0Eep TIL If you beat the video game Twisted Metal III as the demon Minion, he wishes to spend eternity in Hell. In standard Twisted Metal fashion the wish is turned against him and he is sent to Hell, Michigan.
EgJ5X TIL that Because English and British generals insisted The French unit that helped librate Paris would be all white, a white french unit had to be shipped in from Morocco, and was supplemented with volunteers from Spain and Portugal. Making it all white but not all French.
PYp7g TIL during a drill in 1943, the USS William D. Porter accidentally fired a torpedo at the USS Iowa which was carrying US President Franklin D. Roosevelt at the time. The entire crew was rumored to have been arrested when they returned to shore.
WkeBY TIL about the longest standoff in American history. John Joe Gray and his family patrolled their property with guns for 15 years after he didn’t show up to court for assaulting a police officer.