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TIL that in WW2 an American popular culture trend resulted in people graffiti-ing “Killroy was here” across Europe, which convinced Hitler that Kilroy was a spy and Stalin even investigated trying to find out who Kilroy was.

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5YV7R TIL that some Canadian universities give an Iron Ring to engineering graduates "as a symbol and reminder of the obligations and ethics associated with their profession."
dk9E TIL that the only nation to commit a total genocide and exterminate the entirety of a race is not some dictatorial genocidal government, it was the British who exterminated every Tasmanian Aborigine.
e0rxk TIL about Damnatio Memoriae. People’s likenesses were destroyed and his name stricken from the records. The process of damnatio memoraie was intended to be a permanent judgement.
pYmBA TIL that in 1956, the US Air Force lost control of an unmanned drone and tried to shoot it down. Jet fighters fired 208 rockets at the drone. They all missed; the rockets started fires on the ground, and the drone crashed by itself when it ran out of fuel.
awEjZ TIL Anthony Burgess sent a preliminary draft of A Clockwork Orange to Rolling Stone in place of an article and Hunter S. Thompson wrote a letter rejecting Burgess' "limey bullshit" and calling him "cheapjack scum."