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TIL guards of the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier wear specially manufactured Oakley sunglasses to protect from the glare of the marble, and are the only military personnel to wear sunglasses as part of their official uniform.

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VMenm TIL in 1994, the then 17-year-old David Hahn made a nuclear reactor from batteries, old clocks, lanterns, uranium from Czechoslovakia and duct tape in a shed next to his mother’s house.
rN5Kd TIL about Zone Rouge, an uninhabitable area of land in France 1,200 square km large that in 1918 was deemed too damaged by lead, mercury, chlorine and arsenic shells from WW1 to be repopulated. At the current rate of recovery, it will take 700 years to make the whole area safe
rN96M Today I learned that the statue of David by Michelangelo is 5.17-metre (17 ft) tall.
KOaXQ TIL before the creation of a public, professional, paid fire department in Boston, the city would pay whatever company arrived first at the scene of a fire, which led to intense competition, and even physical altercations between companies on the way to fires.
yaoJ TIL there is a genetic defect among Fruit Flies that cause them to die within two days. Its discoverer named the defect “Kenny” after the character in South Park.