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TIL during Zhu Di's rebellion against the Ming dynasty, as he was besieging Jinan and bombarding the city with cannons, the defenders put plaques with the name of Zhu Yuanzhang (Zhu Di's father and the Ming dynasty's first emperor) written on them on the walls, forcing Zhu Di to stop the siege.

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GYVl1 TIL that during the 1908 Olympics in London, the Russians showed up 12 days late due to the fact that they were using the Julian calendar instead of the Gregorian calendar.
nWGYG TIL The Strauss–Howe Generational Theory. The Theory states that a crisis recurs in American history after every saeculum (85 years), which is followed by a recovery. 85 years ago was the invasion of Poland and the beginning of WW2.
ADgZw TIL The most Edgar Allen Poe was paid for a single work was $100 for his story 'The Gold Bug'. He earned $9 for his most famous poem 'The Raven' which made him a celebrity. He lamented, "I have made no money. I am as poor now as ever I was in my life—except in hope, which is by no means bankable"
OoJZ1 TIL of Neerja Bhanot - a stewardess on hijacked Pan Am flight 73. She hid the passports of American passengers to protect them. Hijackers shot passengers killing 22 and wounding 150. Bhanot was posthumously awarded medals of bravery by India, Pakistan, and the US.
awWao TIL some chips have trillions of transistors, or IBM's supercomputer, for example, has over 73 trillion transistors. https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2019/12/07/the-first-computer-chip-with-a-trillion-transistors