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TIL USPCC (Bicycle Cards) made special decks to send as gifts for American prisoners of war in German camps. When these cards were moistened, they peeled apart to reveal sections of a map indicating precise escape routes.

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9w0jD TIL Mario debuted as the nameless player character in Donkey Kong (1981) before Mario Bros. (1983), called as "Jumpman", " Rescueman" or "Mr.Video". His name, "Mario," was introduced in Donkey Kong Jr. (1982). He was once called "Mario Mario" to align with the title Mario Bros in a 1993 movie.
xVoOb TIL of Sada Abe, a Japanese prostitute who killed her lover after erotically asphyxiating him repeatedly, cut off his penis and testicles, committed necrophilia with his severed penis, went to jail, wrote a book, became an actor, and eventually joined a nunnery, among other things. [NSFW]
e0Ll6 TIL in 1913, John D. Rockefeller was worth $900 million, or 3% of the entire GDP of the United States that year. His fortune was worth a modern equivalent of $418 billion.
rN7J4 TIL that Erik Weihenmayer was the first person to climb mount Everest blind
nevK7 TIL Cantonese is considered to be a conservative dialect, its sound system having preserved the final consonants and tones of the Tang Dynasty literary standard.