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TIL that one of the most treasured possessions of late Japanese Emperor Hirohito wasn’t made of precious metals, or even from Japan. It was a Mickey Mouse quartz watch. Given to him while visiting the US in 1975, where he insisted on visiting Disney Land. When he died in 1989 he was buried with it.

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eWdJ TIL that the Messerschmitt Bf-109, the workhorse fighter of the German Luftwaffe during WWII, first flew with a British Rolls-Royce engine, because the German engine was not ready in time for the prototype.
yVKXw TIL The most successful submarine captain of all time, was Lothar von Arnauld de la Perière. He only fired 74 torpedos, with 39 hits, but during his career sank 194 ships, totalling 453,000 tonnes.
DaRY TIL Nicolas Cage blew through a $150 million dollar fortune on things which included 15 personal homes, $ 67 million dollar dinosaur skull, and 2 extremely rare albino King Cobras.
lojd5 TIL singer-songwriter James Blunt served as a captain in the British Army. During the Kosovo war he took along his guitar which was strapped to the outside of his tank and would perform for troops and locals. He also intended to refuse an order to attack Russians to prevent WW3.
5V5wD TIL In 1990 Saudi Arabia expelled around 1 million Yemeni workers as the Yemen Govt. supported Saddam Hussain in the Iraqi war against Kuwait, an ally of Saudi Arabia. This resulted Yemen to lose out $3 billion in yearly remittances that these 'foreign' workers normally transferred to their homeland