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TIL that when accepting Japan's surrender in WW2, the Canadian representative signed on the wrong line. This set off a chain reaction of wrong signatures that ended with MacArthur's Chief of Staff having to cross out and amend the document in pen.

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OoyNY TIL that South Korea formed a covert military unit in 1968 with the intention of assassinating North Korea's leader. Unemployed youths or petty criminals were recruited and trained on an uninhabited island for 3 years. The existence of the unit was covered up until the 1990s.
6977J TIL than when a demo version of the Sega CD game Keio Flying Squadron was included in the December 1994 issue of Sega Pro CD magazine, the level select cheat code was mistakenly left in the game, allowing players to access the entire game from the demo disc.
gMK0X TIL that due to error in communication, the state of Missouri assumed that a man Michael Anderson was in prison, serving his 13-year sentence for armed robbery. They only realised that they had forgotten to take him to jail when they were preparing for him to be released.
69y4J TIL that the University of Iowa’s mascot, the Hawkeye, is inspired by the character Hawkeye from James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans. The name also pays tribute to Chief Black Hawk, a prominent Native American leader who spent his final years in Iowa and is buried there.
YVmZ TIL When Chuck Yeager broke the sound barrier, he did so using technology provided by the British to America as part of an agreed exchange of technology. After receiving the research, America subsequently reneged on the agreement and no data was forthcoming in return.