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TIL that in the 1960s the CIA paid climbers to put nuclear powered spy devices in the Himalayas to monitor Chinese nuclear weapons tests. Some of the devices were left unattended and were subsequently lost.

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dvEr TIL the real-life home that inspired the movie ‘UP’ is a century-old farmhouse whose owner refused to sell it to developers, even for an inflated price of $1,000,000. Having lived there for over 50 years, she was content to let them build a giant biotech complex all around it.
Nal6 TIL of Bertha Benz, wife of the inventor of the first modern automobile, who made the first ever long-distance drive to market the invention. Along the way, she used her garter to repair the ignition and invented the first pair of brake pads. The 66mi trip took her the entire day.
gMwKy TIL In 36 BCE, Roman statesman Marcus Varro wrote about germs, describing “minute creatures which cannot be seen by the eyes, which…enter the body through the mouth and nose and there cause serious diseases.” The germ theory of disease would not be accepted widely for another 1,900 years.
0wnl1 TIL of Mira, the dying star that has been shooting across solar systems. It has burned for roughly 300,000 years leaving behind materials to help start and create new stars.
LonZ TIL after Steven Spielberg found out nobody would let them film The Terminal in their airport, he had a depiction of the inside of the Düsseldorf International Airport built from the ground up inside a US Air Force hangar.