› added 6 years ago

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TIL that the containment structure built during the Chernobyl disaster to prevent further release of radioactive material was the largest civil engineering feat in history, involving a quarter of a million construction workers who all reached their official lifetime limits for radiation.

dD8mE TIL that before Geronimo ever learned how to properly use a rifle, he would run at armed enemies in a zig-zag pattern until he was close enough to use his knife. He claimed that the mountain spirits spoke to him and said, "You will never die in battle, nor... by gun. I will guide your arrows.”
N8kP TIL in the 13th century, in order to discover which language humans would speak naturally, Frederick II, emperor of Germany, placed 50 newborns in the care of nurses who would only feed and bathe the babies but not speak or hold them. The emperor never got an answer because all of the infants died.
Bggyb TIL we have a bone just beneath our jaw called the Hyoid bone. It's not found on anatomy skeletons because it is the only bone in the body that isn't attached to another bone.
wx9P TIL that during WWII, Stigler a German pilot with 22 victories, spotted a badly damaged American B-17 Bomber. He noticed that the tail gunner was dead and they posed no threat. Instead of shooting it down, he escorted it to safety. 40 years later, the pilots reunited and became buddies.
XaJP TIL during the sentencing of his war crimes trial, Hermann Göring (one of Hitler’s top officers) asked to be shot as a soldier and not hung as a common man. The court refused and instead he committed suicide with a potassium cyanide capsule smuggled into a fountain pen.