› added 5 years ago

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TIL of Canadian Air Marshal Charles Roy Slemon, who saved the world from possible nuclear annihilation by breaking protocol, when on October 5th 1960, the BMEWS site in Thule, Greenland falsely detected a level 5 ICBM attack due to the rising moon.

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nWZP TIL a famous British explorer in Africa became extremely ill and then had his supplies stolen. To feed himself he let the natives put him in an exhibit and people would pay to see him as a curiosity.
xVLA5 TIL The tallest cliffs in the solar system are located on Miranda, a moon of Uranus. At 20km high, it would take a freefalling person 12 minutes to reach the bottom, by which time they would have accelerated to 200km/h.
P188J TIL of Westveleteren Abbey 12, a beer ranked "Best Beer in the World" in 2005. It is brewed in small quantities by Belgian monks to financially support their monastery. Sales are limited to one order per 60 days, per person, per license plate and phone number. The bottles have no label
69ybZ TIL in 1347, Cola di Rienzo, after reading about ancient Rome, ousted the city's government & nobility. He titled himself "Tribune of the Roman people" & sought to unify Italy & restore the Roman Republic. He defeated crime, gave Roman citizenship to all Italian cities, & tried to elect an emperor.
KYWK9 TIL of dazzle camouflage on ships, which consisted of complex geometric shapes and patterns intended to disrupt the ship’s outline and thereby confuse the enemy on the trajectory of the ship