› added 7 years ago

150

TIL in 1944, 3 B-29 bombers made emergency landings in USSR. Stalin ordered his engineers to clone them. A small hole was found on the left wing of the captured B-29 which was probably drilled by mistake. So, a very small unnecessary hole, made with the thinnest drill, appeared on all Tu-4 bombers.

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XEVPX TIL Henry VIII's sixth wife, Catherine Parr, was the goddaughter of his first wife, Catherine of Aragon. Parr's mother had been an attendant of the queen.
x6yrg TIL that birds have mostly hollow bones, because their lungs extend into the cavities in order to have enough oxygen for flight. This is contrary to the popular belief that they are hollow to be lighter, when in fact, bird bones are denser than similarly sized mammals.
8aKpK TIL that during the 1956 Olympic torch relay, veterinary student Barry Larkin tricked onlookers by carrying a fake torch made of a chair leg, a pudding can, and flaming underpants. He managed to hand it over to the mayor of Sydney who gave a speech without realizing it was a hoax.
Z80WQ TIL during WWII, Soviet POWs in Germany faced far worse treatment than any other nation with 60% chance of dying. In comparison, British POWs held by Japanese and German had respectively 25% and 3% chance of dying.
6EBL8 TIL Pope Urban VII was the shortest serving Pope in history; living only 12 days after his election. In his short reign, he instituted the world’s first known smoking ban, threatening to excommunicate anyone who "took tobacco in the porchway of or inside a church”. He died of Malaria.