› added 5 years ago

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TIL of Owen J. Baggett who was the only person ever to shoot down an aircraft using a pistol

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woj8o TIL of Ida & Isidor Straus, a couple aboard the Titanic the night it sank. Isidor had a chance to join his wife on a life boat, but stayed behind to give his place away to a child. Ida, refusing to leave her husband behind, too left the life boat. They died together arm in arm when the ship sank.
VMGQ TIL there is an island called Dildo off the coast of Canada.
R7VnQ TIL that "mad honey" is cultivated in Turkey - honey made from nectar from rhododendron flowers. Small doses cause hallucinations, large doses bring seizures and death. It is used as medicine by Turkish villagers, who drink it in milk with breakfast and believe it increases sexual potency
QOA6 TIL in 1846 during the Mexican-american war, a group formed called “St. Patrick’s Battalion” that consisted of Irish Catholics. They faced discrimination in the US, so they switched to fight for Mexico.
QbBM TIL that Martin Van Buren, 8th president of the U.S., did not mention his wife of 12 years even once in his 800 page autobiography