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TIL in 1943 a German pilot spotted a damaged American B-17 bomber and escorted it to safety. They were reunited 40 years later after an extensive search by Charlie Brown the pilot of the B-17.

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6EB8m TIL Lincoln repeatedly warned that British recognition of the Confederacy was tantamount to a declaration of war. Knowing a war would cut off vital shipments of American food, wreak havoc on the British merchant fleet, and cause the immediate loss of Canada, Britain was unwilling to risk a conflict
JYEKQ TIL: Chemists Frank Sherwood Rowland and Mario Molina were ridiculed by representatives of the aerosol and halocarbon industries for their hypothesis that CFCs would lead to depletion of the ozone layer. The chair of DuPont called it: "a science fiction tale...a load of rubbish...utter nonsense".
0gxj TIL: In the ‘30s the Smithsonian recorded Confederate Civil War veterans reenacting the the rebel yell battle cry. This is the only recording of actual veterans doing the yell.
LkoAP TIL in Ontario, anyone living within 50km of a nuclear plant can order free iodine tablets for use in the event of a nuclear accident. Anyone within 10km receives them by mail automatically.
nepld TIL that 20 years before the first woman was democratically elected in 1980 as president of a country (namedly Iceland), stateswoman Sirimavo Bandaranaike of Ceylon (present-day Sri Lanka) was elected as prime minister, when she led her party to victory at the 1960 general election.