archive.macleans.ca

VBgpZ TIL of Viktor Belenko, the Soviet pilot who defected with the MiG-25 (most advanced Soviet interceptor of its time), who initially assumed that his CIA handlers were keeping him in an elaborate tourist trap made to impress foreigners because he couldn't comprehend the sheer abundance he was seeing.
WkmW9 TIL that when a sailor with chronic sea sickness was ordered back to sea because the doctors denied that sea sickness was a real illness, an admiral ordered all port medical staff to take a short voyage by ship in rough seas. The next day the doctors changed their opinion.
WkeV9 TIL that in an attempt to modernize Newfoundland, Canada, the province's Premier hired the former Latvian Minister of Finance, Alfred Valdmanis. While industrializing the province, Valdmanis embezzled hundreds of thousands of dollars before being unmasked as a criminal and former Nazi collaborator.