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TIL Clyde Barrow (Bonnie and Clyde) once wrote a letter to Henry Ford, thanking him for the reliability and performance of his V-8 automobiles.

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R7J5Q TIL American author Washington Irving lied when he said Christopher Columbus sailed the world in a bid to prove it wasn't flat. The truth is that 'Flat Earth' has not been a mainstream theory since at least 600 B.C. In the 1400s, almost everybody would have known the Earth was round.
ne0dr TIL of a 1972 CIA project to wiretap enemy phone lines deep within North Vietnam. The helicopter used in the operation, developed at Area 51, was the quietest ever built. In the dead of night, its pilots flew 100-200 feet above North Vietnamese farmers and anti-aircraft guns without being detected.
pYoON TIL that demand for semaglutide (Ozempic, Wegovy) in 2024 forced Novo Nordisk to run factories 24/7, 365 days a year, hire 10,000+ workers, and spend $6B on expansion. New UK prescriptions were also halted due to shortages.
JY914 TIL about the Groom of the Stool: the most intimate of an English monarch's courtiers, responsible for assisting the king in excretion and ablution. Under Henry VII, the Groom of the Stool became a powerful official involved in setting national fiscal policy.
wL5DJ TIL of the Photorevolver, a camera hidden inside a non-functional firearm invented in 1882, which allowed the user to pull the “gun’s” trigger to close the camera’s shutter. Only 14 photorevolvers were built, with only a handful thought to survive today, with prices between $50,000 and $120,000.