› added 5 years ago

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TIL about the Sprint missile, part of an ABM system which blew open its silo with explosives, launched the missile platform out of silo with explosives, and reached Mach 10 (7610mph) in five seconds; traveling so fast it required an ablative heat shield, with surface temperatures reaching 6200F.

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K44J TIL The incumbent president of North Korea is Kim Il-Sung. He assumed the office of the Eternal Presidency on July 8, 1994, and he has steadfastly held onto power, even though he’s been dead for 18 years. This makes North Korea the world’s only necrocracy.
R6o9 TIL the “father of chemical warfare”, Fritz Haber, a Jew, pioneered many poisonous gasses for warfare use in WW1. He had family members killed in concentration camps by the same gasses.
XZwR TIL In 2005, the US Supreme Court ruled in favor of the application of Eminent Domain to kick homeowners off of their property so private developers could build hotels, health clubs, and condos in New London, Connecticut. 8 years later, the abandoned property remains an overgrown, barren field.
kOLD4 TIL Anton LaVey's writings (author of "The Satanic Bible") were influenced by Ayn Rand, Friedrich Nietzsche, H. L. Mencken, the members of the carnival with whom LaVey had supposedly worked in his youth, P. T. Barnum, Mark Twain, John Milton, and Lord Byron.
awQMJ TIL that when Wilford Brimley played a elderly retired man that discovers the fountain of youth in the movie cocoon he was only 50 years old.