› added 7 years ago

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TIL of Ben L. Salomon, a dentist in the Battle of Saipan whose field hospital was overrun by the Japanese. He provided cover fire for the wounded to escape and then manned a machine gun for additional cover fire. When his body was found, 98 dead enemy soldiers were piled in front of his position.

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D1vpg TIL that in 1969, Candid Camera host Allen Funt was on a plane that was hijacked by two men demanding passage to Cuba. The passengers, having spotted Funt, believed the situation to be a hidden camera prank. He could not convince them otherwise until the plane actually landed in Cuba.
N7Lpb TIL 1996 U.S. Cables have detailed how the Saudi Royal Family members received stipends up to $200,000-$270,000 a month, and when a US embassy economics officer visited the office responsible for the distribution, he described it as a place “bustling with servants picking up cash for their masters.”
W8rY TIL Gardiners Island in New York is one of the United States’ largest private islands, has been owned by the Gardiner family for almost 400 years, and was granted to them by the King of England. It also has New York State’s oldest building on it, built in 1639.
BjJK TIL of Cymothoa exigua, a parasite that consumes the tongue of a fish, attaches itself to the blood supply, and becomes a newly functioning tongue, gorging itself until the host slowly dies of starvation. It’s one of few known parasites that consume and replace a host’s organs.
4Xv1o TIL about the Finnish unit 'Poronkusema' - The distance a reindeer can travel before needing to stop to urinate. Today used to describe something that is at a very obscure distance away