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TIL Famous Chess Player Igor Ivanov Defected To Canada In 1980 While Traveling Home To Moscow On A Czechoslovakian Airliner. His Plane Made An Emergency Stop in Newfoundland, Canada. Taking The Chance, He Ran From The Plane While Being Chased By KGB Agents and Was Granted Political Asylum

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E15v7 TIL that United States Army had a tactical deception unit called "Ghost Army" during the WW2, it consisted of 1100 soldiers, their job was to deceive the enemy by inflatable tanks, sound trucks, and fake radio transmissions.
b9X4E TIL that some DVD copies of "Monty Python and the Holy Grail" include a subtitle track called "Subtitles For People Who Don’t Like The Film", which is comprised of lines from Shakespeare's Henry IV Part 2 which vaguely resemble what the actors are actually saying
jNMvE TIL that the man who first proposed the Big Bang theory was a Catholic Priest
nWyYd TIL that there used to be over 420 species of plant growing inside or on the coliseum, some of which grew nowhere else in Europe. There is a theory that the animals that were brought to the arena to perform and fight scattered seeds that had been stowed in their fur and scat
pYG1G TIL Soviet ballet prodigy Rudolf Nureyev was from a Muslim Tartar family and started dance in Bashkir folk performances. On tour in Paris, he escaped the KGB to socialize at gay bars and with foreigners. In retaliation for defecting to the West, he was banned from seeing his mother for 25 years.