› added 6 years ago

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TIL that Jerry van Dyke, the younger brother of Dick van Dyke, was offered the lead role in Gilligan's Island but accepted a role in My Mother the Car instead. This show, about a man whose dead mother is reincarnated as a car, ended after one season and is considered among the worst shows ever made.

neNnP TIL Saburō Sakai, a Japanese WWII fighter ace, was shot through his goggle by a turret gunner. The 7.62 mm bullet passed through his brain, blinding one eye and paralyzing one side of his body. Despite this, he landed his plane and returned to battle a year later.
v1Wx TIL that a 15-year-old Canadian executed the first major DDoS crippling popular websites likes Yahoo!, CNN, eBay, Dell and Amazon to show the world how easily a kid can knockout websites, was sentenced to 8 mos juvenile detenction and was FORCED to donate $250 to charity.
v1RE8 TIL that Lebron James refuses to pay for apps or music and only uses his phone when he's on wifi
awanZ TIL about the Quadro Tracker, a metal antenna hinged to a hollow plastic handle bought by police in the 90s for $400-$8000/unit. The manufacturer claimed the antenna would swivel to point towards a sought object or person. The fraud was exposed in 1996 and the company executives acquitted in 1997.
0lVv TIL that 91 of the 220 cast and crew of the movie The Conqueror, including John Wayne and Susan Hayward, died of cancer suspected to be caused by radioactivity in St. George, Utah, downwind of 1950s atomic bomb tests at the Nevada Test Site. The director shipped 60 tons of dirt back to Hollywood,too