› added 12 years ago

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TIL Israel “savagely attacked” an American research ship, killing or wounding over 200 crew members.

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Ypo8B TIL Subutai won 65 battles as general of the Mongol Empire including defeating a Russian army of 80K with only 20K soldiers. His tactics were studied by Mikhail Ivanin in the 19th century & incorporated into Russian military academies & the Red Army.
MearV TIL jet engines are tested against bird strikes using a "Chicken Gun" that fires dead chicken bodies at them.
l7lPr TIL the funk band War started out as a backing band for Football Hall of Famer Deacon Jones.
DQPMp TIL NORAD started tracking Santa Claus when, during the Cold War, a typo in a newspaper lead a 5-year-old to call a top-secret emergency line reserved for the president. The general who answered pretended to be Santa after learning of the kid's mistake.
l7p9V TIL about The Million Dollar Highway in Colorado. It was built in 1883 as a toll way and operated as such until the 1920s when it was rebuilt. Legend has it that an early traveler was so overcome by vertigo on the steep, winding road that he said he would never travel it again even for a million $.