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TIL of Kurt Gerstein, a Nazi officer who tried to alert the world of the Holocaust while it was happening by sending detailed reports to Swedish, Swiss, Dutch and Catholic officials. These were largely ineffective and he died by suicide in 1945

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nemMG TIL Harper Lee and Truman Capote were childhood friends who wrote together after school. To Kill a Mockingbird’s character Dill is based on Capote. Lee was an “assistant researchist” for Capote to help write his book In Cold Blood. Both of them spent two months conducting interviews for the book.
jNXYE TIL Tom Attridge, the pilot of the first jet aircraft to shoot itself down. He fired two bursts midway through a shallow dive. As the trajectory of the cannon rounds decayed, they ultimately crossed paths with the jet as it continued its descent. Though it was a crash-landing, he survived.
RAD6 TIL that Leo Fender, the founder of Fender and the person who developed the first solid-body electric guitar and electric bass guitar, never learned to play either instrument.
lnba TIL: A Detroit musician living in poverty didn’t know that in South Africa, he was more popular than the Beatles.
VaYk TIL that because of post-glacial rebound, Finland is rising so fast that they have laws in place for when new land appears