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TIL that two male, maneless, man eating lions rumored to have killed over 130 construction workers would sneak into camp at night & drag workers out of their tents while they were sleeping. They were eventually killed by a British soldier who in the process, was singled out & stalked by the lions.

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l7xWr TIL two aviation incidents happened where superstitious, inexperienced passengers tried to throw coins into the plane's engines for good luck before the flight.
LJOm TIL the Screen Actors Guild strike of 1999 prevented the use of live actors in advertising. Struggling to boost sales and needing an ad campaign, an insurance company turned to CGI to replace the actor. The Geico Gecko was born.
X01wj TIL that American rockets are often equipped with a self-destruct system to protect people if the vehicle goes off course. Since 1958, 33 US orbital launch attempts have ended by self-destruction.
wxl8 TIL that in 1978 France rolled out a pre-World Wide Web online service (MiniTel) that gave it’s users access to online shopping, search engines, cybersex, message boards etc … France Telecom only retired the service in 2012 after 30 years and 800 000 units still in use.
e0abk TIL the dwarf actors in the 1987 film The Garbage Pail Kids Movie could only survive in their costumes for five to seven minutes before their oxygen depleted, so a paramedic with a stop watch was required on set in order to keep the takes quick, and the actors from asphyxiating.