› added 8 years ago

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TIL of British fighter pilot Robert Stanford Tuck. After forcing a German bomber to jettison its payload in the countryside instead of over a city, it caught the corner of an Army training camp, killing one man. His sister’s Husband.

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gr7BX TIL the world's smallest mammal is the bumblebee bat, weighing less than a dime. This tiny bat is only about the size of a bumblebee and weighs less than a dime! 🦇
4XKDa Til the Statue of Liberty's hand sat in Madison Square park for 6 years before being installed. While the French paid for the statue, the US didn't want to pay for the pedestal, so to raise money, photographs were sold to tourists and for 50 cents, you could climb a ladder to the top of the torch.
mxDmp TIL Thailand's aircraft carrier, HTMS Chakri Naruebet, was dubbed the "Thai-tanic" as being little more than a royal yacht.
grO4A TIL of Rita Crundwell, who embezzled $54 million as Comptroller of Dixon, IL (pop. 15,000). This was about 30% of the city's funding for 22 years. She served less than 9 years in prison and is now living on an 80-acre ranch that was likely bought with her ill-gotten gains.
7ypX TIL that a real light bulb cartel lowered the average lifespan of a bulb to 1,000 hours in order to boost sales in the 1920s. Their successful work popularized the concept of planned obsolescence.