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TIL In December 1952 the Tower Bridge started to open while a double-decker bus was passing. The driver, Albert Gunton made the decision to accelerate, clearing a 3 ft gap to drop 6 ft onto the north bascule, which had not yet started to rise. There were no serious injuries.

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78Rk7 TIL the full name of Zaire's dictator Mobutu Sese Seko was "Mobutu Sese Seko Kuku Ngbendu wa za Banga", which translates to "The all-powerful warrior who, because of his endurance and inflexible will to win, goes from conquest to conquest, leaving fire in his wake."
By TIL that Saddam Hussein had a daughter named Hala of whom no photographs or records exist, and that her current whereabouts are unknown.
mxAnE TIL the record time for driving from NYC to LA (the ~2800 mile/4500 km "Cannonball Run") is 25 hours 39 minutes. To avoid getting stopped, the car was disguised as a pоlіcе interceptor, and had brake light kill-switches, radar detectors, laser diffusers, CB-radio, and a roof-mounted thermal camera
xymB TIL That at a 1996 KKK rally in Ann Arbor Michigan an 18-year-old black woman named Keshia Thomas protected a Klan supporter from being beaten by an anti-KKK mob
NwRJ TIL that people without light stimulation from the sun (i.e. in a cave) tend to have a 48 hour sleep-wake cycle