› added 1 year ago

100

TIL nazi preparations to invade Britain (Operation Sea Lion) after France fell in 1940 were obvious to the British, so they began to bolster their defenses to make any invasion as costly as possible. This included removing all street, road, and railway signs to sow maximum confusion in the enemy.

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grAd9 TIL that during the signing of the North Atlantic Treaty that founded NATO, the Portuguese delegate gave a speech in English with such a heavy accent that the translator just repeated it without the accent and nobody realised.
4kg4o TIL that Firestar, the superhero that appeared in 'Spider-Man and His Amazing Friends' as Peter Parker's roommate, became infertile and got cancer from her powers.
1adgO TIL Shorter workweeks lead to less smoking, thinner waistlines. For blue-collar workers, shortening the workweek by 4 hours lead to a 19% to 24% decrease in smoking. For white-collar workers, cutting the same amount of hours was associated with a 1.7% to 2.1% drop in BMI.
69EdQ TIL U.S. songwriter Billy Davis rewrote a UK jingle for the Coca-Cola Company. The song 'Buy the World A Coke' was rewritten again because people kept calling radio stations asking for the tune to be played. It subsequently became "I'd Like to Teach The World to Sing" and reached #13 on Billboard.
nWrPB TIL astronomers actually use lasers to project fake stars into the atmosphere, in order to measure & compensate for atmospheric distortions, allowing them a much clearer image of real stars.