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TIL that paintball was inspired by the 1924 short story The Most Dangerous Game, about an aristocrat who targets humans for sport.

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E1547 TIL that the nautical terms for either side of a ship, Port and Starboard, were changed to the current terms due to the confusion caused by the old term for the left side. The terms used to be Larboard and Starboard.
e06nJ TIL Nathaniel Hawthorne was related to a judge named John Hathorne who resided over the Salem Witch Trials. Upon learning of his ancestry, Hawthorne was so horrified that he changed the spelling and pronunciation of his name so as to avoid any connections being made.
4XmEJ TIL of Eric Erickson, a Swedish businessman who pretended to be devoted to the Nazis, but was really a spy for the American military. He made more than 30 trips to Germany between 1939-1945. He mapped out oil refineries that were later bombed. His family had disowned him for “supporting” Hitler.
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