› added 10 months ago

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TIL the Colorado National Guard once tried using flamethrowers and explosives against a swarm of locusts. It didn't work.

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via reddit.com

GApRg TIL that in its 30 years of operation from 1967 to 1997, the McDonnell Douglas Corporation only developed one new, from the ground up aircraft. It was the C-17 Globemaster III.
X0kZX TIL In 1971, Alan Shepard hit a golf ball on the moon. He made four swings, “a shank” with the third, and on the fourth swing he caught the ball flush. “Miles and miles and miles,” he said to the TV audience
R5ldl TIL that advance tickets to all three days of Woodstock cost $18, equivalent to only about $125 in 2019
nNa9 TIL that the french foreign legion units always march last during parades because on average, the legion has an 88 steps per minute pace while other french units have 120 steps per minute while marching. The reason for this is somewhat unclear.
EgVg7 TIL the second Rashidun caliph, Umar ibn al-Khattab, a senior companion and father-in-law of the prophet Muhammad, was assassinated by a Persian slave in 644 who stabbed him with a double-bladed dagger, apparently due to Umar's refusal to lift a daily tax imposed on the slave by his slave master.