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TIL A U.S. infantryman named Bill Millin stormed the beaches of Normandy on D-Day playing bagpipes. German snipers didn’t shoot him because they thought he was insane.

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R5kN8 TIL about the Zimmermann Telegram, a secret diplomatic communication issued from the German Foreign Office in January 1917 that proposed a military alliance between Germany and Mexico if the USA entered World War I against Germany. The telegram was intercepted by British intelligence.
a8jmJ TIL Volkswagen Beetle production eventually ended in Mexico in 2003 because of the introduction of a new taxi regulation in Mexico City, requiring only four-door vehicles, to prevent robberies.
pNrQ TIL Willie Nelson lives in self-sustaining community on Maui with neighbors like Kris Kristofferson, Woody Harrelson, and Owen Wilson.
awwyo Pyrocumulus clouds tower tall above a wildfire in these photos taken last week from an Oregon National Guard F-15C. Most cumulus clouds form when the sun-warmed surface heats air, causing it to rise and carry moisture upward where it condenses to form clouds. In pyrocumulus clouds, the driving heat is supplied by a forest fire or volcanic eruption. The hot, rising air carries smoke and soot particles upward, where they become nucleation sites for condensation. Pyrocumulus clouds can be especially turbulent, and the gusting winds they produce can exacerbate wildfires. In some cases, the clouds can even develop into a pyrocumulonimbus thunderstorm with rain and lightning.
ADeB4 TIL: The mother of Dmitri Mendeleev (creator of the Periodic Table) traveled 1200 miles with her son to a university in Moscow to plead for her son's admission, only to get rejected. The mother then rode with Mendeleev another 400 miles to Saint Petersburg University and got him admission.