› added 6 months ago

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TIL that Italian-born skier Alessia Afi Dipol had only been to Togo once before representing the African country at its first Winter Olympics in 2014. She became a citizen just before the games started and later said she chose to represent Togo because her father owns a clothing factory there.

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R71O4 TIL Chicago had its very own German newspaper focused on Anarchy, called the Arbeiter-Zeitung or Worker's newspaper
D1bZY TIL that King Victor Emmanuel III of Italy was called "little saber" because his short stature (1.53m) required his uniform to be equipped with a saber shorter than the ordinary in order to not touch the floor when it was attached to the belt.
xdYB TIL that ‘Russian Ark’ is a 96-minute film shot entirely in a single, Steadicam sequence. It follows a narrator through 33 rooms in the Winter Palace, contains over 2,000 extras and 3 orchestras, and took four attempts to get right with the final take pressured by the camera’s dying battery.
mxyMP TIL during a match at the 2003 Rugby World Cup, a drunken Samoan fan ran onto the field in an attempt to block a penalty kick from a South African player. The player kicked the ball and the fan's head simultaneously. The kick was good and the fan was knocked unconscious.
rNOJM TIL the samurai sword, invented a millennium ago, was a marvel of beauty and engineering. The katana’s two different types of steel gave it optimum qualities to pierce and slash making it a highly versatile weapon in battle.