› added 9 years ago

120

TIL that of the 196 countries in the world, 59 of them gained independence from the United Kingdom.

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via reddit.com

kOAW5 TIL - 30 yeas ago today (May 20, 89) a Soviet pilot baked a cake with sleeping pills and fed it to his squadron. While they were asleep he cut the alarm, wrestled with the guard on duty, took control of a Mig-29 and flew it to Turkey. He died in a Soviet Yak52 near Seattle during test flight in 2001
1aOM7 TIL That the CIA not only tried to assassinate Fidel Castro literally but also tried their hand in character assassination including using thallium salts to attempt to destroy his famous beard
gMxeA TIL: DeepMind's AlphaStar AI is now a full-blown StarCraft 2 Grandmaster and better than 99.8 percent of players on Battle.net, 'under professionally approved conditions.'
WkMyX TIL that Marvel has to publish a Captain Marvel comic at least once every two years to not lose their trademark on the name, leading to several different characters using the name as an alias
b9JO7 TIL That Salvator Mundi, a painting of Christ holding a crystal orb, by Leonardo Da Vinci, is the current most expensive piece of art ever sold at auction. In 2017, it sold for $450.3M. In contrast, in 2005, at pre restoration, it sold for less than $10,000, as sellers believed it was a mere copy.