› added 6 years ago

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TIL one of New York’s first crime bosses was a Prussian immigrant known as Mother Mandelbaum. She built up a criminal empire worth millions, ran a school to teach kids how to become successful pickpockets and thieves, and functioned as one most prominent hostesses for New York’s high society.

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p8g7A TIL that the US military was so unprepared leading up to WWII, General George Patton personally bought tools and parts from the Sears-Roebuck mail order catalog to get the 2nd Armored Division to operational status.
DQEr TIL there is a planet, 55 Cancre e, 40 light years away which is twice the size of Earth and has 1/3 of its mass made up of diamond
QJ9d9 TIL that in 2002 Keiko, the killer whale from Free Willy, was finally freed after over two decades in captivity. He died a year later, having become too dependent on humans to survive on his own.
9YVkG TIL that the 2015 Waco biker shootout, which left 9 dead and led to the arrest of 177 bikers on RICO and murder charges each with $1 million bail, resulted in zero convictions after only one trial and all other charges were dropped.
XVPk TIL: That a third of people have a “Photic sneeze reflex” where they sneeze when they are exposed to a bright light.