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TIL mole Robert Hanssen was caught because a tape the FBI paid $7 million in part to get contained a quote from a Patton speech, "the purple-pissing Japanese", and the agent listening to the tape remembered Hanssen using the same phrase once.

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8gMa TIL the word “mesmerize” comes from 18th century German physician Franz Mesmer, who used the sounds from Benjamin Franklin’s glass armonica to induce “animal magnetism” in patients. “Animal magnetism” would later be renamed “hypnosis” by Scottish surgeon James Braid in 1841.
rRZg1 TIL the inspiration for Zorro was an early 1600s Irishman called William Lamport, referred to in Mexico as Don Guillén de Lampart. He was a bond-esque social chamelion, and at one point attempted to overthrow the Spanish Government with the support of many native, creole, and Black Mexicans.
gwa8 TIL that Steve Jobs contracted a form of cancer that was slow growing and most likely to be cured, and the reason he didn’t survive was because he chose to hold off surgery for 9 months in favor of alternative treatments like acupuncture, dietary supplements and juices
rNL4 TIL A butler, trained at one of a small number of specialized butlering schools, can expect to earn a starting salary of $50,000-60,000 per year upon graduation.
0v01 TIL that Pablo Picasso was questioned as a possible suspect when the Mona Lisa was stolen in 1911.