› added 11 years ago

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TIL of Sheriff Buford Pusser. This 6'6" tank of a human waged a one-man war on moonshining, prostitution, gambling, and other vices in MI, surviving 7 stabbings and 8 shootings. He also single-handedly took vengeance on ¾ of his wife’s killers before dying in a car crash.

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Bgrkb TIL that Algeria’s national anthem “Kassaman” was first written by poet Moufdi Zakaria on the wall of his prison cell using his own blood after he was arrested and tortured during the Algerian independence movement
7r5Mr Today I Learned that the image of Smokey the Bear undergoes more enforced regulation than the American flag. This is not hyperbole, the US government has to give explicit permission for anyone to have a costume, and does not allow Smokey The Bear to be depicted in any way that is demeaning to him.
9YVjX TIL that among starfish that can regenerate their entire body from a single arm, some can do so from just 1cm (0.4in) long and in some species of starfish, a large female can split in half, each half becoming male which changes back into female once they grow big enough.
6dlm TIL jailers used to have keys that doubled as single-fire guns as a last resort for self defense.
RNB8 TIL the Scarecrow from The Wizard of Oz got the Pythagorean Theorem wrong after the Wizard gave him his diploma.