› added 6 years ago

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TIL that "Xmas" is not an attempt to remove "Christ" from "Christmas", but rather a shortening to the Greek letter chi, which is the first letter in the Greek spelling of Christ.

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wormo TIL of Audie Murphy, the most decorated US soldier of WWII, who held off a German company alone for one hour then led a successful counter attack despite being wounded and out of ammunition.
rNRo0 TIL that director Christopher Nolan's brother Matthew was alleged to be a contract killer who kidnapped and tortured an accountant to death in Costa Rica. While being held in a secure prison tower in Chicago, Matthew concocted an elaborate escape attempt using a razor, a harness, and a 31-foot rope.
Yb4x TIL of Doodlebug, an orphaned kangaroo joey that was abandoned until he was found after he walked up to strangers and extended his arms, seemingly wanting to be picked up. A photo of him hugging a teddy bear later went viral.
VMKmQ TIL of SR-71 Blackbird test pilot Bill Weaver, who survived a free fall from space after his plane disintegrated around him doing Mach 3.2
jNkAj TIL a great white shark attacked 60-yr-old New Zealand surfer Nick Minogue. He yelled "fuck off!", tried to punch it in the eye, missed, then yelled "fuck off!" again & hit it in the eye. The shark then retreated, leaving the surfer with 2 tooth holes in his wetsuit, 1 of the 2 punctured his arm.