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TIL Stephen Merchant was hired for the Ricky Gervais radio show that ran between late 90s to early 2000s primarily because his CV happened to be the at the top of the pile.

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ne1eb TIL in 1987 when an SR-71 Blackbird lost an engine while flying Mach 3 over the Baltic Sea, four Swedish jets prevented it from getting shot down by the Soviets. The mission was declassified 30 years later, and the four Swedish pilots that protected the Blackbird were awarded the US Air Medal
4ka5b TIL a 1986 Cleveland charity event released 1.5 million balloons, causing car accidents, airport closures, and hindering a Coast Guard search that ended with two drownings.
oPWA TIL McDonald’s is one of the leading contributors to deforestation in the Amazon and uses questionable tactics to do so.
lxr1 TIL that in addition to being a Nobel-winning physicist, Richard Feynman was also a semi-secret artist and was pretty good at drawing strippers.
E1yMV TIL that “Boo” comes from the Latin, meaning “I am crying aloud!”, which means that when ghosts say “boo!” they are basically saying “I am yelling!”