› added 8 years ago

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TIL of Hitler’s “Supergun”: the V-3 cannon was designed to launch shells over 100 miles (165 km) to bombard London from bunkers on the French coast.

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be50 TIL that minutes after John Lennon was shot, Howard Cosell fought fellow commentator Frank Gifford to interrupt ABC’s Monday Night Football and announce the news to their live TV audience.
wLxZo TIL that the Black Plague caused a revolution in Medieval England by decimating serf communities, thereby significantly decreasing the available work force. The surviving serfs were able to exert hitherto unimaginable pressure of their lords, resulting in higher pay and more liberties.
rGbW TIL Fawlty Towers - considered by many (including the British Film Institute) to be the best British television series of all time - only consists of 12 episodes, and that the last 6 episodes were produced 4 years after the first 6.
aw7n0 TIL Target created an algorithm to detect which shoppers were in their second trimester of pregnancy. They sent baby marketing materials mixed in with lawn mowers and wine glasses so the women wouldn't suspect anything.
0wdk1 TIL that William Adams, an English navigator during the 1600's, became the first of his nation to reach Japan, and was recognized as one of the first ever Western samurai.