› added 5 years ago

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TIL that during an awards ceremony for the Seal Team 6 operators who were on the mission to kill Osama Bin Laden, CIA Director Leon Panetta disclosed classified information in a speech. One of the attendees was Mark Boal, who would go on to write the script for Zero Dark Thirty

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BrNnb TIL Jerry Seinfeld contacted South Park creators Matt Stone and Trey Parker to express interest in voicing a character. They offered the comedian the nonspeaking part of “Turkey No. 2” in their Thanksgiving episode, but Seinfeld declined.
v1QRL TIL During the Vietnam War the US tried to weaponize the religious beliefs of the Vietnamese. They believed anyone improperly buried would wander the earth in agony. So the US played horrifying sounds of a wailing Vietnamese man over the jungle at night as part of a psyop campaign.
wLgro TIL Rome imported enough olive oil that the dumping ground for the jars it was shipped in is still visible today as the 115 ft high Monte Testaccio
kJjm5 TIL After the brutal sack of Rome by the imperial mercenaries in 1527, Pope Clement VII was forced to pay 400,000 ducats in exchange for his life. Despite the ransom, he was imprisoned in Castel Sant'Angelo, where he remained for 6 months before he managed to escape the prison dressed as a peddler
LJLV TIL A Japanese farmer discovered a gold seal while repairing an irrigation ditch in 1784. The seal turned out to be 95% pure gold and was a gift from the Chinese Emperor to a Japanese envoy from 54 CE, the earliest recorded date of contact between the two countries.