› added 11 months ago

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TIL: A site manager's failed attempt to free a stuck flatbed truck resulted in it rolling off a cliff, blocking a railway tunnel just as an express train was approaching, leading to a crash that killed 49 people.

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AN5L4 TIL of Tomoaki Hamatsu, a Japanese comedian nicknamed Nasubi, who for a gameshow in the late 90s lived inside a small room for 15 months, naked, starving and alone, surviving solely off of magazine contest prize winnings, whilst being broadcast to over 15 million viewers a week without his consent
RYW7 TIL that in 1939, Maine Rep. Cleveland Sleeper introduced a bill to make it illegal to add tomatoes to clam chowder.
W7j9o TIL two men conned €55m from wealthy people by asking for aid posing as French minister Jean-Yves Le Drian in online meetings by wearing a silicone mask of Le Drian & sitting at a fake official desk. They only duped 3 of 150 targets, but one wired $47m, thinking it was ransom money for journalists
v1pRB TIL only 20 universities in the US make money off of college sports
MEwA TIL Mick “Crocodile” Dundee was based on an actual person who survived 56 days in crocodile infested outback Australia. He died in a police shootout after he killed a cop while high on amphetamines.