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TIL during WWII British spies posed as fake charity groups to hand out special monopoly games to allied prisoners of war. These games had compasses, maps, real money, and other useful tools for escaping.

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OokRL TIL during China’s Ming Dynasty, powdered smallpox scabs were blown up the noses of the healthy. The patients would then develop a mild case of the disease, & from then on were immune to it. Although the technique had a 0.5–2.0% mortality rate, it was better than the diseases 20–30% mortality rate.
N71xe TIL about Baun the Cat, a cat in Russian fairy tales that has a voice that can cure any sickness. The cat mostly uses its voice to make people sleep in order to eat them though. In stories, the only way to defeat this cat was to wear an iron helmet to block its voice.
5dRR TIL a window washer in New York survived a 47-floor fall by hanging onto the aluminum platform, which rode the air like a surfboard creating wind resistance that slowed his descent. He now walks 1-2 miles every day and has finished a 5k charity event.
QJAPp TIL Santa was skinny for most of his existence. In 1863, cartoonist Thomas Nast began drawing him with a huge stomach. Both the skinny and fat versions of Santa existed into the 1930's, when Coca Cola used a fat Santa in their advertisings, forever cementing that image in pop culture.
DQ50p TIL about the War of the Bucket. It was fought in 1325 between the rival city-states of Bologna and Modena, in Italy. A common myth surrounding the war is that it was caused by the Modenese stealing a bucket from a Bolognese well. Modena won the Battle of Zappolino, the only battle of the war