› added 6 years ago

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TIL the phrase 'pulling out all the stops', meaning to use all the resources or force at one's disposal, comes from organ-playing, where it means to literally pull out every knob to play all the pipes at once, thereby creating the fullest possible sound.

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bZdZ TIL a man broke out of prison by mailing himself in a crate and evaded capture hours later by convincing the police he was a jogger. He then traveled from one side of Canada and the States to the other before being caught.
8eBp4 TIL that German Chocolate cake is named for an American Baker, Samuel German
oRO8L TIL there was an effort during WWII to train pigeons to guide missiles by strapping them in a harness and using their pecks to navigate. The pigeons were largely successful during closed loop tests with fast response time and high accuracy, but the project never came to fruition due to budget cuts.
4kEdX TIL history shows that between 1480 and 1913, female leaders in Europe were 27% more likely to wage war than men.
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