› added 8 years ago

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TIL that the widely distributed Sears Roebuck catalog was also used as a popular substitute for toilet paper until it began to be printed on glossy paper (at which point some people wrote to the company to complain).

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Eve7 TIL The Ka-50 helicopter has a ejection seat. Before the rocket in the seat deploys, the rotor blades are blown away by explosives in the rotor disc.
D1orD TIL Mt. Everest guide Scott Fischer claimed, "We've got the Big E figured out, we've got it totally wired. These days, I'm telling you, we've built a yellow brick road to the summit." Fischer and 7 others were killed in a blizzard on Mt. Everest, and his body is still on the mountain.
pY6De TIL the last US cavalry charge was in 1942 in the Philippines against Japanese forces at the battle of Bataan, resulting in only 3 US casualties and a victory. The unit would go on to starve due to lack of supply and eat the horses.
v1yYr TIL that a Scottish parliamentarian introduced a bill to decriminalize homosexuality in England after his gay brother killed himself. It passed. He wrote another bill to protect badgers. It failed. When asked why the latter didn’t pass, he snorted “There are not many badgers in the House of Lords.”
m14Np TIL that sniper Simo Häyhä kept a Winter War diary discovered in 2018 from his nephew's drawer, that can now be read online for free, visualized and contextualized also with his letters and other memories