› added 6 years ago

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TIL the Nazis had an annual charity drive called Winterhilfswerk. It was not uncommon for those who forgot or donated to little to lose their jobs, be prosecuted, or be victims of mob violence. Large donations were a way to establish oneself as a loyal supporter of the Nazi Party without joining it.

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nW7Jo TIL Bob Hoover, an American Spitfire pilot in WW2, was shot down over occupied France and captured but was able to escape from the POW camp 16 months later, steal a German fighter, and fly it from northern Germany to friendly territory in Holland.
N7VAe TIL that hummingbirds are only native to the Americas.
dA1K TIL Billy Joel pursued a music career when he realized he wasn’t going to graduate high school at the end of his senior year. As he recounted, “If I’m not going to Columbia University, I’m going to Columbia Records, and you don’t need a high school diploma over there.” Columbia ended up signing him.
kJo74 TIL that before the 19th century, the Versailles was often extremely dirty. Women pulled up their skirts up to pee where they stood, while some men urinated in the middle of the royal chapel. Marie-Antoinette was once hit by human waste being thrown out the window as she walked through a courtyard.
yVGvX TIL the Geneva Convention prevents the use of the graphic + cross symbol (and crescent) in almost all circumstances — except to indicate or to protect the medical units and establishments.