Rio de Janeiro was once capital of Portugal, making it the only European capital outside of Europe.
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Napoleon Bonaparte thought torture should be abolished because the information obtained from it is worthless.
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The word 'mile' is derived from the Latin word for 1,000 - the number of paces it took the average Roman!
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Beethoven, was told by a music teacher that he had no talent for music. In fact, this teacher once remarked, “As a composer he is hopeless.”
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Unsinkable Sam (nickname of a German ship's cat) who served on 3 warships, one German, two British, all sank in action. The cat survived each sinking, floating away on wooden planks to rescue.
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