› added 9 years ago

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TIL Union General John Sedgwick, shortly after yelling “They couldn’t hit an elephant at this distance” at the Battle of Spotsylvania Court House, was shot under the left eye and fell down dead.

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aywM TIL The actors who played Ferris Bueller’s parents in the movie met during the filming and married in real life.
W7YBN TIL that early in Edgar Allen Poe's writing career, he published an essay exposing a fake chess-playing automaton that was actually operated by a chess master hidden inside. The essay employs a method of deduction called 'ratiocination' which is used by C. Auguste Dupin, Poe's fictional detective.
OLmY TIL that in 2006, it took Akira Haraguchi, a retired Japanese engineer, 16 hours to recite the first 100,000 digits of pi from memory only. To prove that the exercice was legitimate, everything was filmed, even his trips to the toilet. Despite this, he has yet to receive a Guinness World Record.
9YQXM TIL that that black holes "spaghettify" any objects entering the black hole, stretching them out like spaghetti in a process called spaghettification.
wLQ41 TIL that when relocating rhinos in South Africa, they're drugged, blindfolded, and have their legs are tied to a helicopter. It was found that blindfolding them decreases stress during the flight. They're flown because it's much quicker and more convenient than relocating them via truck.