› added 3 years ago

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TIL that during the US invasion of Grenada in 1983 soldiers had to rely on tourist maps with grid lines hand-drawn on them, and use copies of The Economist magazine for intelligence as the invasion was ordered on such short notice.

wLwG1 TIL In 2003, Juan Catalan was cleared of murder charges, after outtake footage shot for “The Car Pool Lane” episode of Curb Your Enthusiasm showed him and his daughter attending the Los Angeles Dodgers vs. Atlanta Braves baseball game some 20 miles from the crime scene at the time of the murder.
ADl5g TIL in 2008, George Garratt from Glastonbury, UK, legally changed his name to "Captain Fantastic Faster Than Superman Spiderman Batman Wolverine Hulk And The Flash Combined." Apparently his grandmother has not spoken to him since the change.
691MQ TIL: João Teixeira de Faria is a self proclaimed medium and "psychic surgeon" able to perform remote and invisible surgeries. He's been on James Randi, Oprah, ABC news, etc. He made $10 million in 2014 selling cures. Many patients died and he is now in jail for 489 years for numerous crimes.
69BZl TIL that following the Revolutionary War, Philadelphia entered a period of heightened sexual activity, characterized by informal encounters in pretty much any available location. During this time, it became known to many as "Sin City."
oBagE TIL the the 1960s was the heyday for the Quicksand trope - almost 3% of films showed characters sinking in clay, mud, or sand.