› added 12 years ago

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TIL that John Cleese declined the title of Commander of the British Empire because he thought it was “silly”

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VMGAk TIL that Charlize Theron's abusive father was shot dead by her mother, in self defence. This happened on a night when he sprayed bullets into Charlize's room door, which Charlize and her mother had held shut for protection. Upon their miraculous survival, her mother immediately shot him down.
rxMw TIL that during the Falklands war, the British Navy mistook whales for submarines and torpedoed them
QJAGa TIL that the web security firm Cloudflare generates their encryption codes by taking videos of lava lamps' unpredictable movements and converting the randomness into a virtually unhackable code.
vQ9r TIL of Patricia Demauro who in May 23rd 2009 rolled a pair of dice 154 times continuously at a craps table, without throwing a seven. Odds of that is 1 in 1.56 trillion.
6Yal TIL the doctor who discovered washing hands could practically eliminate fatal infections was committed to an asylum by his staff and beaten to death by guards.