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185

TIL that in early Japan, when the head of a household died his house was burned; before the founding of Kyoto, whenever an emperor died his entire capital city was burned as a rite of purification.

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DQmYJ TIL One of the reasons Germany didn’t develop nuclear weapons first during World War II was due to the Norwegian heavy water sabotage. In 1943, Norwegian resistance fighters launched a daring attack on the Vemork hydroelectric plant, which was producing heavy water essential for Germany's atomic bom
LkZPP TIL that Laika (The first dog in space), did not die peacefully to lack of oxygen like the Russians said. Decades later, it was revealed that instead she died in panic thanks to a heat shield malfunction a couple of hours after launch.
DQQjJ TIL that the earliest known citation for "gaslight" as a verb, used to mean "psychologically manipulate someone," comes from a 1965 episode of the sitcom Gomer Pyle, USMC
nDXW TIL that the first all-black regiment to fight in WWI was given the name “Harlem Hellfighters” by their German enemies who noted their ferocity. Their French allies, who fought alongside them when other Americans would not, called them “Men of Bronze”
VMavp TIL of Calvert DeForest aka Larry "Bud" Melman from the Late shows with David Letterman. He was the first face to greet viewers on both the NBC and CBS debut shows. He was a regular feature on the shows from 1982-2002 and had a cult following. He requested no funeral service and left no survivors.