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TIL in 1975 Ingo Bethke escaped from East Germany by floating on an air mattress across the Elbe. 8 years later his brother Holger fled East Berlin by firing an arrow with a rope tied to it and zip lining accross. The two then flew their brother Egbert over the wall on a homemade ultralight in 1989.

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9Ye6p TIL that after several food safety scandals that led to several deaths, The director of the Chinese State Food and Drug Administration was convicted of corruption and executed
vBRR TIL of Mexican singer Chalino Sánchez failed assassination attempt on. In 1992 while he was performing at a club, a patron came up to the stage, pulled a gun, and shot Sánchez in the side. Sánchez immediately pulled a gun of his own and returned fire, the would-be killer was shot to death.
wLdeP TIL that the toy manufacturer Toy Biz successfully argued in court that their X-Men action figures were not based on humans, but mutants, meaning that they would not be eligible for a tariff on human-based toys
9YRjQ TIL in Mexico prison breaking is not illegal. The legal system notes that all citizens have a fundamental desire to be free, so you cannot be punished from attempting to escape jail. If no other laws are broken, those who are caught must only return to jail to complete the rest of their sentence.
pLMA TIL of Camp Century, a top-secret US military base built under the ice sheets of Greenland in 1960 to house missiles. Built under the cover of climate research, it housed 200 people and was powered by the world’s first portable nuclear reactor. Denmark didn’t uncover the base’s existence until 1995.