› added 5 years ago

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TIL Theodore Roosevelt Jr was the oldest man in the D-Day invasion at 56. Initially denied to attend D-Day, Ted petitioned as he personally knew the men of these units and believed his presence would steady them. Despite arthritis and a heart condition, he stormed the beach with a cane and survived.

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Gyj1 TIL that parts of Cameroon use beer bottle caps as currency - just like the videogame Fallout.
7rvOb TIL The Hubble Telescope is using Spermaceti (whale oil) to lubricate its parts due to whale oil's capacity to withstand extremely cold temperatures without coagulation.
9YwMB TIL that all US astronauts since 2011 have to speak Russian.
d8N5E TIL Granulation on the sun is visible only in excellent seeing with high power and at least a 4-inch aperture filtered telescope. Sometimes called rice grain or lemon peel, this textured appearance is due to hot gas continually boiling up to the Sun’s surface, cooling, and sinking down again
78OvL TIL during WW2 the Japanese killed 200 Allied soldiers after capture by drowning them at seas in 3ft baskets used for swine in what is known as the ‘pig-basket atrocity’