› added 6 years ago

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Today I learned that the Second Sino-Japanese War broke out because a Japanese soldier ditched during a drill to use the bathroom. When they couldn't find him, they assumed that he was kidnapped by a nearby Chinese Town. That led to an armed conflict that led to a full-scale war that lasted 8 years.

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jvDM TIL that the reason Star Wars Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back started with Luke being attacked by a Wampa is because Mark Hamill had been in a car crash at the end of filming of A New Hope which caused damage to his face. Lucas wanted to justify Mark’s new look
YpQjZ TIL at the age of 14, in 1905, Charles de Gaulle wrote a short story titled "General De Gaulle" in which he imagined himself leading the French Army to victory over Germany "sometime in the 1930s."
0dAgM TIL the first Ariane 5 launch failed because software engineers left redundant code from the previous version of the rocket. A 64-bit FP variable was made as an input to a 16 bit integer, resulting in an integer overflow that crashed the rocket's launch computer.
ADRVa Today I learned The Brave Little Toaster was a book before it was a movie. Also that a 1st edition copy can go for over 100$.
ejwb TIL that the Soviets modified the famous Soviet Flag over Reichtag photograph because the soldiers were wearing 2-3 wrist watches, indicating looting.