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TIL that in 1944 a crossword puzzle in the the British newspaper The Daily Telegraph unintentionally contained the names of the D-Day landing sites before the attack took place. This was believed to be the result of the puzzle creator hearing the words from schoolboys who interacted with soldiers.

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dDRLr TIL John Paul Scott is the only person to have escaped the infamous Alcatraz Penitentiary by fashioning water wings from rubber gloves. Scott made it to the San Francisco shore but suffered from hypothermia and exhaustion, and he was recaptured by military police the following morning.
VB6gm TIL the actress who played Regina George's sister in Mean Girls (the girl who flashes the TV when Amy Poehler's character is introduced) is a physician specializing in otolaryngology—head and neck surgery. She also is a very talented artist who paints realistic pieces.
rRdVe TIL that Dolly the Sheep was named after Dolly Parton. Dolly was cloned from mammary gland cells and Doctor Ian Wilmut could not think of a more impressive pair of glands than Dolly Parton's.
gMZXL TIL that Tchaikovsky's 1812 Overture is considered the first "diss track", as well as being the first recorded use of firearms in a piece of music. These both stem from the cannons at the song's climax, which were representative of the Napoleonic Army's own cannons being turned against them.
rRVGd TIL in 1898, some 73% of Alabama's entire annual state revenue came from convict leasing.