› added 10 years ago

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TIL: At Andrew Jackson’s funeral in 1845, his pet parrot had to be removed because it was swearing.

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G0gj TIL of the first and only Space Mutiny when an American crew shut off communication equipment to protest their disagreement with NASA.
1Ad8 TIL that a 30 mile giant eye in the Sahara Desert once served as a geographical landmark for astronauts.
nVkG TIL Christopher Lee, when acting the scene in which Saruman is stabbed from behind in The Return of the King, informed Peter Jackson that because he would be stabbed in the lungs, he would not be able to scream. He knew this from his time in the SAS during WWII
m1EbO TIL that, in its 105 years of operating, the "Diplomatic Courier Service", a special courier service operated by the USA that can only be used by diplomats, has lost just a single package - a baby grand piano, that was stolen at a Bulgarian railway station in 1919.
b9KAQ TIL of Rebecca Twigg. After winning two Olympic medals in cycling, six world championships, and appearing in Vanity Fair, Sports Illustrated, and numerous commercials, Twigg abruptly dropped out of the sport, had trouble holding down a desk job, and has been living on the street for years.