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TIL the 1679 Habeas Corpus Act was only passed in Parliament because its supporters jokingly counted a fat lord as ten votes and the opposition never noticed

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newoW TIL that the USA navy operates more aircraft carriers than all other navies combined - the USA operates 12, while all other nations operate 11 (China, the UK, and Italy each operate 2, while Russia, France, Spain, India, and Thailand operate one apiece)
0wNvp TIL of Carl McCunn, a wildlife photographer who arranged to be flown out to remote Alaskan wilderness but forgot to schedule when he'd be picked up. He wrote of a plane spotting him stranded, in his excitement he accidentally gave the pilot an "All is well" signal, his diary was found with his body
GYK7E TIL that soap is not meant to kill bacteria and viruses, just wash them down the drain.
40PX TIL that a man blinded in the Russian Civil War went on to create an Olympic target pistol so radically different that it was banned from competition after 1956 … also Princess Leia used it in Star Wars
Jd9V TIL in the Duelfer Report by the 1,400 member force by the CIA and Pentagon concluded in 2004 that Saddam Hussein had stopped all nuclear and chemical activities, as well as destroyed all stockpiles, in 1991