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13252

TIL in 1915, San Diego hired a “rain maker” who used a secret mix of chemicals to “attract rain” for $10,000, payable if he filled their reservoir. It rained for most of January, destroying bridges, dams, and causing 20 deaths.

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5YM5p TIL about Karayuki-san, name given to poor young Japanese girls and women who were tricked and trafficked to destinations in East Asia, Russia and British India. The word literally meant 'Ms. Gone Abroad' and in Russian Far East these girls were used on cover missions for intelligence gathering
BrG6W TIL Hugh Thompson Jr., a US Army Major, helped ended the My Lai Massacre with his helicopter crew including Glenn Andreotta and Lawrence Colburn. They were remembered and revered in Vietnam with their depiction in the short Vietnamese film "The Sound of the Violin in My Lai".
n997 TIL: Dr. Dre has been financing Burning Man since 1995
KQo6 TIL that during Prohibition in the United States, Winston Churchill referred publicly to the Constitutional amendment banning alcohol as “an affront to the whole history of mankind.”
R5okQ TIL The Journal of Forensic Sciences looked at 400 movies and 126 fictional villains and concluded “No Country for Old Men”Anton Chigurh as the most realistic villain