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TIL That Jack Kelly, father of Grace Kelly and self made millionaire was banned from the Henley Regatta under the pretext that he was not a gentleman. He went on to beat the Henley champion at the Olympics and sent the King of England a note saying simply "greetings from a bricklayer".

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d8BKQ TIL in 1991, former child actress Dana Plato entered a video store demanding the money in the cash register. The clerk called 9-1-1 and said, "I've just been robbed by the girl who played Kimberly on Diff'rent Strokes." She later died in 1999 of a drug overdose.
oBYOE TIL In WW2, the first operational jet fighter, the deadly German Me 262s, were too fast for the Allied fighters, so the allies would follow the jets back to their base, then attack them on their landing approach, when they were travelling slowly, and incapable of rapid acceleration.
O16a TIL New Mercedes-Benz cars will play a short blast of white/pink noise just before an unavoidable crash, forcing the occupant’s ears to turn off for a moment, preventing the hearing loss normally caused by the crash itself or airbags.
vwJj TIL that in 1802 there was a proposal to build a tunnel under the English Channel that would use horse drawn carriages and be lit by oil lamps.
9OWr TIL a valley settlement in Norway that lives in shadow for nearly half of every year has installed giant mirrors on an adjacent mountain to redirect sunlight into the town’s square, all based on a plan that was thought up 100 years ago.