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TIL to besiege an army, Julius Caesar built an 18km wall around their city. Upon learning of an approaching relief force, he built a 21km wall around the first. The armies attacked from inside the city and out, and Caesar defeated the 180k strong enemy with 60k men. The entire episode lasted 3 weeks

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VBJ7p TIL that in the 1994 Caribbean Cup, a rule change plus the need to win by two goals resulted in Grenada trying to score in either net and Barbados defending both nets.
8aWvG TIL in 1984 NASA crashed a fully fueled Boeing passenger jet, with crash dummies as passengers and pilots into the Mojave desert. The crash was filmed from multiple angles at high speed in 16MM film. The knowledge gained from this test lead to major changes in airline flight safety standards.
LkXVr TIL at the Battle of Cowpens during the American Revolution, an American officer used his Spontoon (spear) to pole vault onto, and capture, a British cannon
XEKvQ TIL "The Theme from New York, New York" was not nominated for an Academy Award. The winner was "You Light Up My Life". Also nominated was "Nobody Does It Better" from The Spy Who Loved Me. Originally performed by Liza Minnelli, it didn't become famous until Frank Sinatra covered it 3 years later.
nWerW TIL that New York Times has occasionally experienced gaps in publication due to multiple strikes in its history. One such strike occurred in 1978. Various papers formed to fill the gap including the satirical Not The New York Times.