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TIL The story of mass panic in New York caused by the radio broadcast of The War of The Worlds in 1938 is largely false and was caused by the newspaper industry sensationalizing the story, seeing it as an opportunity to attack the radio as being an untrustworthy source of news.

Read more telegraph.co.uk

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M7goA TIL of Peter Wallace, an English or Scottish buccaneer who, in 1638, founded the first English settlement in present-day Belize.
mx4eP TIL in the civil war, generals would deliberatley expose themselves to enemy fire to show off their courage and to lead by example. Union general Kearny rode right next to confederate lines, saying "The Rebel bullet that can kill me has not yet been molded". Shortly after he was shot and killed.
nyeY TIL a man made a homemade tank out of a bulldozer that was immune to armor piercing ammo, and took revenge on a town, causing over $7 million in damage before he took his own life
MeZ7B TIL that a plane containing 6,000 lbs of high grade marijuana crashed in Yosemite’s Lower Merced Pass Lake in 1977, which became nicknamed ‘Dope Lake’ by rock climbers. The climbers broke through the ice to excavate bales upon bales of weed that were overlooked by the feds involved in cleanup.
Brk8x TIL that the robot suit in the 60's TV series Lost In Space had a built-in ashtray. The suit was so difficult and painful to get in and out of that the actor Bob May would just stay inside and have his smoke breaks in the suit so needed a place for his ashes and butts.