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TIL that the Soviets used mobile gas chamber vans to execute groups of counter-revolutionaries during The Great Purge of the 1930's

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yRoX TIL that the final explosion from Krakatoa measured 310 dB, loud enough to be heard perfectly clearly 3,100 miles away.
078R TIL Jack White holds a grudge against Guinness World Records who don’t acknowledge his shortest concert of all time record attempt.
GoA1 TIL that in 1976, a Soviet pilot defected to Japan in his advanced MiG-25 fighter, which Russia demanded be returned. Japan complied, but only after allowing American engineers to examine the aircraft. Japan then shipped it back piece by piece, and billed Russia $40,000 in transport and labor costs.
DQgeJ TIL that while serving in WWII, Mel Brooks was assembling a bridge one night when he heard German soldiers singing badly in the distance, he grabbed a bullhorn and sang back. When he was finished he thought he heard applause.
xZOg TIL in 1974, a man named Phillipe Petit illegally walked across the Twin Towers on a tightrope. Upon being arrested by the police, Petit was required to give a free aerial show for children in Central Park, and was granted permanent access to the tower’s observation deck.