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TIL In the 60’s, the U.S. Department of Defense and Joint Chiefs of Staff wanted to kill innocent American citizens in order to frame Cuba, but JFK stopped it.

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GYQl5 TIL that John Young smuggled an illegal corned beef sandwich on board the Gemini 3 spacecraft in 1965. For this delicious stunt, he was given the first reprimand in NASA space mission history and his snack remains the only contraband sandwich to ever make it into space.
QJLxX TIL that risking Court Martial, Pilot Gail Halvorsen, made parachutes out of hankies to drop chocolate bars to German children during the Berlin Airlift. This eventually led to Operation Little Vittles which dropped more than 23 tons of candy to the children of a besieged West Berlin.
R70O7 TIL the preatorian guard held an auction for the roman emperorship. Didius Julianus,drunk from the night before had to be dragged from bed by his wife and daughter. He arrived late and was not allowed entry to the building the auction was taking place so he yelled his offer from outside. He won
VGbZ TIL Ahmad Shah Massoud was an Afghan resistance leader, who in April 2001 warned the European Parliament about a large-scale terrorist attack on U.S. soil being imminent. He was assassinated on September 9, 2001, 2 days before the 9/11 attacks.
a8PjZ TIL Vince Gilligan described his pitch meeting with HBO for 'Breaking Bad' as the worst meeting he ever had. The exec he pitched to could not have been less interested, "Not even in my story, but about whether I actually lived or died." In the weeks after, HBO wouldn't even give him a courtesy 'no'.