› added 1 week ago

7

TIL that Jean Jaurès, a leading French socialist who tried to prevent World War I, was assassinated in Paris just three days before France entered the war. His killer was acquitted in 1919.

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8BVL TIL there is a 6-year high school in Chicago where students graduate with an associate’s degree on top of a high school diploma, along with a $40,000+ job opportunity at IBM.
WknYN TIL During WW II the US Army was aware that mail to soldiers was critical for morale, but overwhelmed with the volume and space it took to ship. So the resuscitated a British/Eastman Kodak method where every letter was photographed, and the film was shipped, then printed. It was called V Mail.
E14Mo TIL 14 years prior to Titanic sinking, the book Futility told the story of an unsinkable ship "Titan" which also struck an iceberg on it's starboard side in the North Atlantic on an April night. The fictitious ship closely matched the Titanic's length, weight, speed, capacity, and lack of lifeboats.
pa7A TIL that Israel attempted to bomb American and British civilians in Egypt and blame it on the Muslim Brotherhood in order to destabilize and occupy the country. Israel denied the entire affair for 51 years, but then awarded the Israeli participants in 2005.
0dgJj TIL that Big Bird (played by Caroll Spinney) was in talks to go to space on the Challenger shuttle. The most probable reason why Big Bird wasn't on the shuttle was due to the costume itself taking too much space.