› added 3 weeks ago

TIL that the 30×42ft (9x13m) flag that inspired “The Star-Spangled Banner” was made so large “the British would have no difficulty seeing it". It flew over Fort McHenry during the 1814 Battle of Baltimore. The commander’s family kept it, but cut away souvenir fragments; one sold for $38,837 in 2011.

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Wk4no TIL that during WW2 in US occupied Aachen, an OSS agent assessed that the US installed mayor was planning to form a dictatorship. The agent leaked the information to the press and the mayor, whose identity was secret, was killed by an SS commando team which parachuted from a captured American B-17.
9YJvD TIL of the RP FLIP (Reserach Platform FLoating Instrument Platform), a 355 foot long boat that can fill the front 300 feet with water ballast. Once full, the boat will upend 90 degrees with the aft 55 feet of boat acting as a vertical platform out of the water, like a spar buoy.
jBYj TIL prior to WWII a Viennese psychiatrist organized a special counseling program which for the first time in years lead to zero student suicides. Later imprisoned in Nazi camps, his family murdered, he wrote in secret a book about the meaning of life which became a bestseller after his liberation
oBNYo TIL a man called David Phillips bought 12,150 pudding cups in order to successfully collect more than one million air miles. He is now known as 'the Pudding Guy'.
X0PRE TIL that frequent blood donation has been shown to reduce the concentration of "forever chemicals" in the bloodstream by up to 1.1 ng/mL, and frequent plasma donors showed a reduction of 2.9 ng/mL.