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TIL that in the 1880s and 1890s, 'dude’ was another word for ‘dandy’. In 1888 New York socialite and Chow dog enthusiast Evander Berry Wall (1861-1940), dubbed King of the Dudes, won a 'Battle of the Dudes' twice. He owned 5000 neckties and once changed clothes 40 times between breakfast and dinner.

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N7P5N TIL in the early years of the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade, the helium balloons were released into the air instead of being deflated. A return address was stitched into the balloon and a $100 reward was offered if they were returned. One landed on a house and one nearly caused a plane crash.
5VGOP TIL, 2016 Dallas, TX College Sniper Attack, SWAT planned for a bomb disposal robot with C4 explosive on its arm to enter a room next to a wall where the shooter was. The C4 blasted the wall, killing the gunman. This marked the first time a robot was used in targeted lethal force in the U.S.
Oovag TIL: One person, the not-well-known General Leslie Groves, oversaw both the Manhattan Project (the WWII program to make an atomic bomb) and the construction of The Pentagon. An underling called him both "the biggest S.O.B. I have ever worked for" & the best possible person to run the A-bomb project.
b6vKQ TIL of the 1985 HBO/CBC mockumentary "The Canadian Conspiracy," about a plot by the Canadian government to subvert the US by infiltrating Hollywood with Canadian stars. Leslie Nielsen and his brother Erik, who was the real life Deputy PM of Canada at the time, are central to the film's plot.
OGlWa TIL Mark Hamill once pitched to George Lucas that Boba Fett should be revealed as Luke Skywalker’s mother, envisioning her as a double-agent working secretly for the Rebels, and as the only way to top Vader being Luke’s father. Lucas obviously didn’t go for it.