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16

TIL Irish Americans invaded Canada

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xVygw TIL Charles Babbage lost 2 games of chess to the Mechanical Turk, an automaton with a chess player hidden inside that fooled people that a machine could play chess. He knew it was a hoax but it inspired his work on the Difference Engine and then the Analytical Engine, the world's first computer.
57KP TIL 1961 US had it’s first Nuclear Accident, killing all three operators. One was blown into the ceiling by the force of the blast and impaled there by a reactor rod. They had to be buried like Nuclear Waste. (Idaho)
9w4km TIL that the voice of Woody Woodpecker was done by his Creator's wife. She had to do so by submitting an anonymous audition tape after Walter Lantz rejected the idea that a woman could voice the male character.
OoZRY TIL teaching creationism (the theory that God created the Universe) has been banned in publicly funded schools in the UK since 2014. The scientific theory of evolution must be taught instead.
QJ4jd TIL Top Gun's Charlie was based on Christine Fox, a mathematician who worked at the Center for Naval Analyses, just accross the street from the Navy's Topgun School. In 2013 she became the Defense Department's acting Deputy Secretary, making her the highest ranking female in the DoD's history