› added 4 years ago

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TIL a 64 year old Finnish skier hit 125 mph at the Albertville Olympics in 1992. 38 years prior he finished 11th in the Combined event (downhill and slalom) at the 1956 Olympics at Cortina.

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via reddit.com

vDE7 TIL that some Syrian rebels are using the Sturmgwehr 44, an assault rifle produced in Nazi Germany in late WW2 and which can be worth up to $30'000 in the US
W7Xr8 TIL the pigment/paint Prussian Blue is used in medicine to treat radiation poisoning from Thallium and Caesium.
Jr4Q TIL in 1916 German agents blew up a munitions depot in New Jersey. An explosion so large that could be compared to a 5.5 Richter scale earthquake. $100K in damage was done to the Statue of Liberty and people as far away as Maryland were woken up by what they thought was an earthquake.
VJok TIL, after Jesse Owens won 4 gold medals in the 1936 Olympics held in Berlin, Adolf Hitler sent Owens a commemorative inscribed cabinet photograph of himself. Honors were not bestowed upon Jesse Owens by either President Franklin D. Roosevelt or his successor Harry S. Truman during their terms.
wowKM TIL that Two train stations in the United States, Pennsylvania Station in New York City and the Chicago Union Station were built with architecture that is based on the Frigidarium of the Baths of Caracalla. Unfortunately, many years ago, Penn Station was redeveloped.