› added 10 years ago

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TIL that the WWII British code breakers had discovered the preparations for the German invasion of the USSR, but, although this information was passed to the Soviet government, Stalin refused to believe it.

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N7WLJ TIL Peter Molyneux was operating a baked bean export firm when a confused tech salesman mistakenly gave him 10 free computers. This event jumpstarted his career in video game design and he would go on to create many notable game such as: Dungeon Keeper, Fable and Black & White.
gMDGb TIL that there is actually a neighborhood called West Seattle, even though Seattle borders Puget Sound to the west. It is completely connected to the rest of Seattle, the biggest city in the Pacific Northwest region, and is inside the city limits.
QNv8d TIL that despite being just 250 miles from mainland Africa, Madagascar was originally settled by seafarers from Indonesia -- 3,000 miles to the east.
J7w1 TIL that soldiers erroneously believed that the Ace in a pack of Bicycle playing cards was a symbol of death to the Viet Cong army and would scatter them around the jungle.
x690o TIL Anthony Hopkins once looked throughout the whole London for the book "The girl from Petrovka". Unable to find it he headed home, only to find a manuscript off the book on a bench. It later turned out to be the authors copy, which had been in a stolen car and dumped by the theif.