› added 1 year ago

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TIL that in 1959, the CIA covertly accessed, disassembled, photographed, and reassembled a fully-operational Soviet lunar probe. When they were done, they returned the probe without the Soviets noticing.

Read more cia.gov

via reddit.com

YpQp7 TIL that at the 2008 Beijing games the Danish mixed 49er's mast broke 20 mins before the final race so they had to borrow the Croatians 49er that the Danes then used to win gold with. Afterward, the Croatians received a "Pierre de Coubertin medal" for lending there boat to the Danes.
6ljl TIL that residents of the village of Shitterton in England grew so tired of people stealing a sign with the village name on it they replaced it with a 1.5 tonne block of stone with the village name inscribed upon it.
4kpW6 TIL Albrecht Unsöld studied the star Tau Scorpii and discovered its surface temperature of 32,730 K, creating the first detailed analysis of a star other than the Sun. During the Nazi period, Unsöld stayed in Germany and was drafted as a meteorologist
QJpve TIL about Guinea Worm Disease, an extremely painful parasitic infection characterized by spaghetti-like worms up to 1 meter in length slowly emerging from the human body through blisters on the skin.
wgo8 TIL in 2010, a Polish man living in Germany asked doctors to remove what he thought was a several-year old cyst at the back of his head. However, doctors found that the “cyst” was actually a .22-caliber round lodged in his scalp. He didn’t noticed it because he was drunk when it happened 5 years ago