› added 9 years ago

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TIL in WWII the captain of a US cargo plane shot and killed a Japanese fighter pilot with only his Browning Automatic Rifle (BAR) that was shoved through the cabin window.

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QJ7Gd TIL during the US Civil War, Union Lt. Custer (of later Little Big Horn fame) found a West Point classmate Capt. Lea who was fighting for the Confederates and was captured. While recuperating, Lea met and married his nurse. Custer attended the wedding in full blue Union uniform, with Lea in gray.
Eg8LW TIL that Indian actor Bonda Mani did not receive Indian citizenship and forever remained as a refugee in India until his death
VMJNm TIL The oldest continuously occupied residence in California is the Rios Adobe in San Juan Capistrano, built in 1794 for Feliciano Rios, a soldier at Mission San Juan Capistrano. The current owner 225 years later is Stephen Rios, an ex-Marine raising the 10th generation in the adobe.
vPNO8 TIL that notoriously emasculated husband John Bobbit later also lost all his toes in a contaminated water scandal at Camp Lejeune.
x6LQ1 TIL that Waikiki Beach in Hawaii is almost entirely artificial. Sand was brought in from Manhattan Beach, CA via barge to Waikiki as early as the 1920s. Sand imports ceased in the 1970s, with sand from about 2000 feet offshore used to replenish now.