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TIL the Battles of Khalkin Gol increased IJA 'research' at Unit 731; suspicions of Soviet biowarfare led to the IJA implementing more epidemic prevention measures, formally researched by Ishii in Harbin

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v1pvL TIL that when Napoleon Bonaparte met Charles-Henri Sanson, the French executioner who killed nearly 3000 people in his career, he asked him how he could sleep at night. Sanson joked: "If kings, emperors, dictators can sleep well, why shouldn't an executioner?"
GYPd4 TIL that famous stunt performer and daredevil Evel Knievel was about to die because he couldn't get a life-saving liver transplant. When he was literally going to die in his house he got a phonecall. There was a liver available from a young guy who just passed away... in a motorcycle accident.
rRgOo TIL in exchange for appearing in a mobile phone ad, legendary German footballer Franz Beckenbauer requested the novelty number 0176 / 666666. He was then flooded with erroneous phone sex calls by confused callers, since "six" and "sex" are pronounced almost the same in German.
6QYl TIL that late at night, when astronomer Harlow Shapley discovered our sun was not near the center of the Milky Way, he found the only other person in the building, a cleaning lady, and explained his discovery, and said that they were the only two people on Earth that understood it.
xVk51 TIL That skulls have been found in China that are part human, part neanderthal