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TIL In 1924, the federal government funded enormous concrete arrows to be built every 10 miles or so along established airmail routes to help the pilots trace their way across America in bad weather conditions and particularly at night, which was a more efficient time to fly.

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X0w1R TIL After Leo McCarey won the oscar for best director he said 'Thanks, but you gave it to me for the wrong picture' believing that 'Make Way For Tomorrow', which wasn't even nominated, deserved the award.
69J8 TIL Saint Nicholas is the patron saint of prostitutes.
14e7 TIL Nazi Germany produced Chlorine Trifluoride for use as a dual purpose incendiary and poison gas in WW2. ClF3 causes almost anything to spontaneously explode on contact, including wood, concrete, sand, gravel, glass, asbestos, water, and of course flesh.
Y71B7 TIL that during WW2, the US gov't banned sliced bread (so that the hardened steel normally used in bread slicing machines could be put towards the war effort). After a huge public outcry, the ban was lifted after only seven weeks.
E0x TIL While awaiting execution, Nikolai Bukharin wrote to Stalin, “Koba, why do you need me to die?”. ‘Koba’ was Stalin’s revolutionary pseudonym, and Bukharin’s use of it was a sign of how close the two had once been. The note was found still in Stalin’s desk after his death in 1953.