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TIL Winston Churchill presented Joseph Stalin with a ceremonial Sword of Stalingrad in 1943. It was constructed of gold, silver, and crystal. Stalin kissed the sword and handed it to Marshal Voroshilov - who promptly dropped it.

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jNvNa TIL Charles Barkley was the first black baby born at a segregated, all-white town hospital in Leeds, Alabama and was in the first group of black students at his elementary school.
K9aE TIL in 1943 the Nazis made a propoganda film about the Titanic showing the British as cowards and the Germans as brave. The hero is a German officer who saves third-class passengers and the villan is a British owner of the ship who recklessly crashes the boat while trying to break a speed record.
x9ew TIL that bacteria called actinomycetes cause ‘the smell of rain.’
BwRx TIL Eamon de Valera was imprisoned for leading the Easter Rising. While inside, he took the chaplain’s key and melted candles to make a copy and sent it to his friends. They made a real key and put it in a cake. Valera was able to walk out scot-free. He went on to serve as the President of Ireland.
wooj6 TIL about the Lilliput effect: after a major extinction event, the animal species that survive tend to get smaller.