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TIL At the end of WW2, ownership of the German Battlecruiser 'Prinz Eugen' was decided by putting Russian, British and American names in a hat and drawing a raffle.

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vd9K TIL that despite fighting against Nazi troops, with 17,000 dying in combat, Colonial French (Black) troops were not allowed to liberate Paris because of their skin colour. To ensure that a French regiment was allowed to liberated Paris, De Gaulle was forced to use Spanish (white) soldiers
e0YjD TIL: There are locations on planet Mercury where during a day the sun will appear to pause, reverse direction, then continue forward again as it moves across the sky. This happens as the planet’s angular orbital velocity and angular rotational velocity flip as it crosses perihelion
oRr8R TIL: Sigmund Freud's nephew, Edward Bernays, pioneered the field of public relations. Applying his uncle's ideas, Bernays convinced the public that bacon and eggs was the all-American breakfast and, using subliminal images of vaginas and venereal disease, that only disposable cups were sanitary.
j0eM TIL Prince used the heartbeat of his unborn son as part of the percussion in his song Sex in the Summer on the album Emancipation. One month before the album was released his son died of a congenital birth defect shortly after birth.
epdrn TIL that the rainiest place on Earth is Mawsynram in northeastern India. It receives a whopping 12000 mm of rain per year (for comparison, Cardiff, Wales gets 1150mm).