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TIL the Earth is actually 3 million miles closer to the Sun during the winter (Northern Hemisphere) than in the summer

Read more earthdate.org

via reddit.com

yQgDa TIL that Iraqi dictator, Saddam Hussein, had helmets designed after Darth Vader's helmet for his Fedayeen corps, a military unit designated to protect the Ba'athist regime and Hussein himself.
9EGp TIL that the Mythbusters once managed to fold a “football field” sized piece of paper 11 times, busting the myth that you can’t fold a piece of paper more than 7 times.
LQE7m TIL about the Dave Matthews Band Chicago River Incident. On August 8 2004, while driving over a grated bridge, the band's tour bus dumped 800 lbs of human waste into the river below and onto a sightseeing boat full of people.
awbkA TIL that in the US Civil War, the prisoner exchange system broke down over the CSA's treatment of the Union's black soldiers. Officially, the CSA tried them as rebellious slaves, a capital offense. In practice, they were often just killed instead of captured.
kOn75 TIL South African novelist Bessie Head was born of an illegal union between her white mother (who was placed in a mental asylum during her pregnancy) and black father (who then mysteriously disappeared). Her works reveal empathy with children and women treated as “dead things”