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TIL A Homing Pigeon named Cher Ami received the Croix de Guerre for saving about 200 men in WW1. She delivered a message even thought she was shot, missing an eye and and with a leg hanging only by a tendon.

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9YvEQ TIL a polar bear used to live at the Tower of London and go swimming in the Thames. It was a gift from King Haakon of Norway in 1252
0wdo5 TIL that Aeschylus, the ancient Greek tragedian, was supposedly prophesied to die from a falling object, and therefore stayed outdoors. He was killed when an eagle dropped a tortoise on him, mistaking his bald head for a rock.
NXdQP TIL the Kimberly Process, by which diamonds are certified as "conflict-free", has been largely abandoned as ineffective. Due to corruption and smuggling it is essentially impossible to tell if a gem is a blood diamond or not.
w49W TIL Stalin exiled a filmmaker to a city in the Arctic circle for 10 years for dating his daughter
DQ7WV TIL an FBI sting operation in the late 1970s and early 1980s that led to the convictions of seven members of the United States Congress and others for bribery and corruption. The two-year investigation initially targeted trafficking in stolen property and corruption of prominent business people.