› added 5 years ago

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TIL about Augustus Agar, a Royal Navy officer with a wild 37 year career: he sunk a Soviet cruiser using a torpedo fired from a small boat, was knighted for spying, captained the Royal Yacht, smuggled £2 million in gold to Canada, and was pulled so deep by a sinking ship that he got the bends.

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WkWJN TIL Chuck Yeager enlisted as private, was an aircraft mechanic before becoming a pilot, got shot down over France but escaped, had 11.5 aerial victories, broke the sound barrier and multiple speed records as a test pilot, and retired from the US Air Force after 34 years as a brigadier general.
GYOej TIL: The super rich of Germany are one of the most discreet in the world. This is due to a combination of not wanting to be a subject of envy, some of them deriving their wealth from WW2, and the public perception of the rich is one of the poorest in the world.
8a0j4 TIL that certain houses at Hampshire College were named after 4 towns that were purposely flooded to create a huge reservoir in Massachusetts.
VBGBQ TIL that “Who Goes There?”, the short story that was adapted into “The Thing”, was also adapted into a 1972 Spanish Horror Film named “Horror Express” starring Christopher Lee and Peter Cushing.
RvN4 TIL George Lucas pitched an ending to ROTJ where Luke helps Vader take off his helmet and then puts it on himself, saying “Now I am Vader. Now I will go and kill the [Rebel] fleet and I will rule the universe”. His co-writer, Lawrence Kasdan, liked the idea, but Lucas decided not to go that dark.