› added 8 months ago

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TIL a wealthy building contractor who stormed the Bastille had miniature Bastilles made from the prison walls and sent all around France.

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ANxbo TIL a pilot bet the first officer he could land his plane with the curtains closed, relying just on the instruments. Seventy people on-board died in the resulting crash, but the pilot survived.
9wlkD TIL of the governor of the Louisiana Territory and General James Wilkinson, who was revealed to have been a top spy for Spain, nearly 30 years after his death.
kJGn4 TIL In Canada, pepper spray is illegal. If used on someone and causing serious bodily harm or environmental damage, it can lead to penalties of up to a $500,000 fine and up to 3 years in prison.
4XYvN TIL of Clarence Earl Gideon, who from his prison cell in 1962 wrote and mailed a writ of certiorari to the US Supreme Court. The decision from the resulting case required U.S. states to provide attorneys to criminal defendants who are unable to afford their own, per the 6th and 14th amendments.
k9A4 TIL when elephants ‘dance’, they’re really mentally ill and depressed from confinement and restriction from freedom and socialising