› added 4 years ago

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TIL about Operation Mincemeat, a British deception plot to fool the Nazis into thinking that the Allies were going to invade Greece instead of Italy by planting deceptive information on a corpse on the Spanish coast with the hopes that Spain would pass it on to German Intelligence.

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via reddit.com

epm06 TIL There are 36 million Americans of Irish descent and only 5 million people currently living in Ireland (of whom 4 million are ethnically Irish). If your ancestors lived in Ireland in the 1800s, you are 9 times more likely to live in the USA than Ireland.
dyZZ TIL When Eleanor Roosevelt married her cousin (and future President) Franklin D. Roosevelt, she didn’t have to change her last name. And she was given away by her Uncle, (President) Theodore Roosevelt.
gMogD TIL in 1996, a Canadian man fled Canada and thought someone was out to kill him, took his money and drove to Knoxville, TN. He ended up dead in a parking lot with his money around his half-naked body. Police reports show the man was killed by a blow to the stomach. The case remains unsolved.
Rx0Q TIL 80% of Japan is considered uninhabitable
WWeA TIL When Marquis de Lafayette died, President Jackson ordered that he receive the same memorial honors bestowed on Washington’s death. Both Houses of Congress were draped in black bunting for 30 days.