› added 6 years ago

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TIL in the 1950s the US Government investigated a person named Robert Dorr because he kept writing to Boeing and asking for pictures of their planes. They discovered Dorr was a just teenager who loved planes, an "average and loyal American boy." He grew up to be a diplomat, author, and TV pundit.

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PYOWZ TIL that a practical joker once set 70 old tires on fire inside Mount Edgecumbe, a dormant volcano in Alaska. Local residents thought the volcano was erupting until they saw "APRIL FOOL" spray-painted in 50-foot letters around the rim of the crater. He had been planning the prank for four years.
Yppyr TIL in 2009 Airmen Colton Read went in for gallbladder surgery and woke up with both legs amputated. Military doctors punctured his aorta and waited 8.5 hours to get him proper medical care. Read isn't legally allowed to sue for damages.
pPKG TIL that the movie Austin Powers: The Spy Who Shagged Me is translated as The Spy Who Liked Me a Lot in China.
9wDDr TIL John C. Woods, the U.S. Army hangman at Nuremberg, lied about being an executioner and botched multiple hangings, leaving Nazis to die slow, agonizing deaths. He bragged about his work, survived alleged assassination attempts, and later died mysteriously by electrocution in the Marshall Islands.
PbMG TIL that Henry Heimlich, founder of the Heimlich maneuver, purposely infected Africans and Chinese with MALARIA because he thought it would cure them of HIV/AIDS. He still believes this to to be true.