› added 10 years ago

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TIL Jeanne de Clisson, a Frenchwoman whose husband was beheaded for treason, swore revenge and sold her family lands to buy 3 warships. For the next 13 years she went on a pirating binge, targeting King Philip VI’s ships, & personally beheading French noblemen she captured with an axe.

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jDrM TIL that Merck gifted a drug to the WHO that would cure River Blindess in third world countries with no expectation of being paid for it. They said they would “distribute as much as needed for as long as needed” and continue that promise today.
mx6Mo TIL in 1997 Russia tried manually docking a supply vessel to the Mir space station using only a handheld laser range finder, stopwatch, and remote control joysticks. It went badly, but visiting NASA astronaut Michael Foale managed to save Mir by MacGyvering sailing technique with physics knowledge.
117W TIL the Milky Way chocolate bar was not named after the galaxy but rather the then-popular Milky Way malted drink
xVbQg TIL Carlos Hathcock, an American sniper during the Vietnam war crawled over 1,500 yards to shoot PAVN General. It took him 4 days and 3 nights inch by inch. He fired a single shot killing the General and crawled back undetected.
mx4np TIL a woman named Glenda Blackwell brought a scratch off lottery ticket to prove to her husband that buying lottery tickets was a waster of money and accidentally ended up winning $1 million.