› added 6 years ago

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TIL that Americans threw $8.5m worth of silver coins into the sea before the fall of the Philippines. American and Filipino POW divers were coerced by the Japanese to recover it but they sabotaged the operation by secretly appropriating some portions of the haul to fund the Philippine Resistance.

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6Exd7 TIL that a study of deaths on the show Game of Thrones found that the probability of a character dying within the first hour after first appearing on screen was 14%.
Lrlm TIL that more United States troops have died from suicide than have been killed in Afghanistan since 2001.
GY4N4 TIL people who consume a hallucinogenic drug may experience a mental disorder called hallucinogen persisting perception disorder, in which they continue experiencing the visual hallucinations and distortions from the drug long after it has worn off. Researchers don't know why this occurs
OGZ9g TIL Catherine Parr, the last wife of Henry VIII, was the first woman to publish an original work under her own name, in English, in England. After publishing her first book anonymously, she published Prayers or Meditations under her own name in 1545, during her time as Queen consort.
jk4X TIL Danish astronomer and nobleman Tycho Brahe had a fake nose made of metal and a tame elk as his pet. When his mentor asked for the elk in exchange for a horse, Tycho replied that the elk was entertaining a nobleman. However, during dinner the elk drank a lot of beer, fell down the stairs and died