› added 3 years ago

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TIL Benedict Cumberbatch was kidnapped by armed robbers in South Africa in 2005

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WKeX TIL Alexander Hamilton and James Madison both claimed to have written numbers 49-58 and 62-63 of the Federalist Papers. In 1964, a computer analysis of the text revealed that Madison was indeed the author of all 12 of those essays, despite Hamilton’s claim to the contrary.
eey4 TIL that Switzerland has enough fallout shelters for 114% of its population
R55M7 TIL after the eruption of Mount St. Helens in 1980, a team of dredges had to work day and night to clear debris from the Columbia River. When they were finished, they’d collected enough material to fill a football field nearly seven miles high.
KOyV4 TIL that "decimation" means "removal of a tenth" in Latin, and refers to a Roman practice in which military commanders punished units for capital offenses by having soldiers execute 1 in 10 of their comrades.
d8oX7 TIL in French dubs of the classic Looney Tunes cartoons, Pepe Le Pew was given a stereotypical Italian accent, specifically a vocal caricature of Italian-French singer and actor Yves Montand.