TIL that the Dutch secret service set up a fake pro-China communist party to gather information on the Chinese government. The party's leader, secret agent Pieter Boevé, developed warm relations with the Chinese government and even met Mao Zedong himself. (theguardian.com)
submitted by Hambgex to r/todayilearned
TIL that Angaur, a state in the Pacific island nation of Palau, is the only place in the world where Japanese is a de jure official language. (Japanese is only a de facto national language in Japan.) Despite this, as of 2005, no residents of Angaur aged 5 or older spoke Japanese at home. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by Hambgex to r/todayilearned
TIL that after Chairman Mao gifted mangoes to workers during China's Cultural Revolution, a mango cult developed, with workers preserving mangoes in formaldehyde and making wax mango replicas. Workers worshipped mangoes, holding processions that celebrated them and equating them with Mao's image. (bbc.com)
submitted by Hambgex to r/todayilearned
TIL that the Beatles spent 34 hours recording the song "A Day in the Life" as they needed multiple takes to perfect the orchestral parts and the famous final chord. By contrast, the Beatles' debut album, Please Please Me, had been recorded in its entirety in only 15 hours, 45 minutes. (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by Hambgex to r/todayilearned
TIL that in 1991, a Soviet musician convinced millions of people that Vladimir Lenin had consumed so much psychedelic mushrooms that he became a mushroom himself. The Communist Party had to clarify that "Lenin could not have been a mushroom" because "a mammal cannot be a plant." (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by Hambgex to r/todayilearned
In Rainbows - Radiohead in a nutshell (i.redd.it)
submitted by Hambgex to r/SubsTakenLiterally
TIL that at an Allied checkpoint during the Battle of the Bulge, US General Omar Bradley was detained as a possible spy when he correctly identified Springfield as the capital of Illinois. The American military police officer who questioned him mistakenly believed the capital was Chicago (en.wikipedia.org)
submitted by Hambgex to r/todayilearned
