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TIL of a magician with the name of Jean Eugene Robert-Houdin, who was asked by Louis-Napoleon to suppress a possible rebellion in French-controlled Algeria using his magic tricks and he succeed in doing so.

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mx8av TIL that after the Colossus of Rhodes snapped at the knees and fell over onto the city after an earthquake, the remains lay untouched for over 800 years. Even broken, the Colossus was so impressive that many people travelled just to see the pieces.
e0RbJ TIL Sherlock Holmes' address, 221B Baker Street, was originally fictional, as Baker Street's numbering didn't go that high. However, street numbers were reallocated in the 1930s, and the building that got Holmes' address had to get a "secretary to Sherlock Holmes" to deal with it.
gMKYb TIL The Canadian Navy accidentally shelled the US town of Callam Bay after an exercise shooting at drone targets in 1962, they failed to take into account what was behind the targets they were shooting at. Miraculously nobody was killed.
m1w9v TIL there has only been one instance of a submarine sinking another submarine while submerged.
dDmgd TIL about Irritator, a relative of Spinosaurus that got its name because scientists were frustrated to find out the fossils of this creature had been artificially modified by a collector to try and drive up their sale price.