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TIL The Japanese command didn't realize Hiroshima had been totally destroyed until almost a whole day after it happened. Vague reports of some sort of large explosion had begun to filter in, but the Japanese high command knew that no large-scale air raid had taken place over the city.

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vl6x TIL On the 28th of September 2006 The City Council of Reykjavik and neighboring municipalities agreed to turn off all the city lights in the capital area for half an hour, while a renowned astronomer talked about the stars and the constellations on national radio.
nWnDG TIL that less than two weeks after the French surrender in WWII, the British attacked a French naval base to prevent Germany from using the ships. Over 1,200 died and multiple ships were destroyed or damaged. Vichy France retaliated by bombing Gibraltar and cutting off diplomatic relations.
wLm66 TIL that Hindu genealogy registers are kept by the Pandits in Haridwar, India. Some of them stretch across centuries, tracing family history of up to twenty prior generations. These registers are considered sacrosanct and have been used to settle legal disputes relating to inheritance.
W7dMY TIL at the 1933 Chicago World's Fair, the opening night lights were automatically activated when the star Arcturus was detected. This star was chosen since its light takes ~40 years to arrive, so the rays landing on Earth had begun their journey ~1893, the year of Chicago's previous World's Fair
wL10J TIL about Shigeru Yokosawa, a sixty-year-old hospital admin who sacrificed his life by, in the face of an approaching tsunami, rushing to retrieve the hospital's satellite phone. The phone he saved became his colleagues' only lifeline to the outside world after the disaster.