› added 11 years ago

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TIL that the film ‘Waterloo’ had so many extras in the battle scene that the director was in command of the 7th largest army in the world

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1ajWd TIL in 2005 a nonverbal man found wandering the streets was taken into care. When first given access to a piano, he played anything from Tchaikovsky to the Beatles non-stop for four hours. It took four months of media attention to reunite him with his family
gNVA TIL in 1945 an airplane crashed into the Empire State Building, injuring elevator operator Betty Oliver. When rescuers attempted to lower her on an elevator, the cable snapped, plunging her 75 stories down. She survived the fall, and to this day holds the record for longest survived elevator fall.
l7RXa TIL that Marine Corps Captain John W. Ripley was awarded the Navy Cross in Vietnam for climbing under a bridge several times while under fire to plant a combined 500 pounds of explosives in order to destroy it and separate his men from enemy. He survived the action and retired a Colonel in 1992.
wGB8 TIL The bezel on a dive watch only rotates counterclockwise- The reason for this is so that if the bezel is bumped accidentally during a dive, it will only move one direction, subtracting time from the dive and prompting the diver to end his dive early.
R5n1w TIL that during the Salem Witch Trials, dogs were considered to be allied with Satan and used to identify witches. A dog was even executed, though posthumously pardoned later. Not a single cat was killed.