› added 9 years ago

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TIL of “The Mad Piper” Bill Millin, the only bagpiper to land on the beach in Normandy. While men fell around him, he played his pipes throughout the battle. A group of captured German snipers was asked why they hadn’t shot him. They replied that they thought he’d gone insane and felt bad for him.

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E7eW TIL the parody national anthem of Kazakhstan from Borat was accidentally downloaded and played for a Kazakh gold medalist in shooting
0w7GA TIL: Stephen Lyon Crohn was a man that was born with a genetic mutation that allowed him to be immune to AIDS. He was also the great-nephew of Burril Bernard Crohn for whom Crohn's Disease is named.
Mele0 TIL about Tom Sachs. An autistic NYC-based sculptor who, when needing money, would use his art tools and scraps to make crude improvised firearms in his studio to sell in the NYPD Buyback programs for up to $300 apiece.
54P9 TIL The man standing behind George Washington and holding the American flag in the famous painting “Washington Crossing the Delaware” is 18-year-old officer and future president James Monroe.
E1vJW TIL: Einstein reportedly didn't want his brain studied post-mortem; nonetheless, the autopsy doctor took the brain without family permission. It took around 20 years for the public to learn just how much of the "specimen" remained with that doctor.