› added 5 years ago

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TIL Tina Turner's real name was Anna Mae Bullock. Ike Turner not only invented the name "Tina Turner" as her stage name, but he had it trademarked, so that in case she left, another singer could perform under the same name.

6RvW TIL the divide between West Germany and East Germany was so sharply defined it lead to houses and buildings being split down the middle
GoA1 TIL that in 1976, a Soviet pilot defected to Japan in his advanced MiG-25 fighter, which Russia demanded be returned. Japan complied, but only after allowing American engineers to examine the aircraft. Japan then shipped it back piece by piece, and billed Russia $40,000 in transport and labor costs.
xVKZB TIL that when working on "Avengers: Infinity War", the directors considered including a Sherlock Holmes joke when Iron Man meets Doctor Strange, as both actors had portrayed the characters in other media. They decided against it because they thought the joke would be too obvious.
8ey8X TIL: Squirrels gather nuts and seeds during the fall and bury them in the ground or hide them in their nests over a large area (scatterhoarding), and often forget them, resulting in new trees (mutualism). In winter, they eat them after finding the buried nuts.
oRYOr TIL that heirs to the throne of the Ottoman Empire were kept under house-arrest in the "Cage" from puberty until death (or becoming sultan), and it was common for a new sultan to have his brothers killed, including infants, sometimes dozens at once, to reduce the number of claimants to the throne.