› added 7 years ago

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TIL of Ossip Bernstein, a famous chess grandmaster, who was sentenced to death by the Bolsheviks in 1918. While he was facing the firing squad, a russian officer that heard his name offered him the chance to prove his identity in a game of chess. He beat the officer and was released.

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0woRA TIL that in early 1940, America sent a large research vehicle to the Antarctic which, when it arrived, was unable to move in snow and ice, except when driven backwards. The vehicle was eventually abandoned and has not been seen since 1958 due to ice shelf drifting and snowfall.
R7y18 TIL between 6,000 & 9,000 years ago, the people of the Levant decorated the skulls of their dead with plaster, gave them shells for eyes, and painted intricate details of hair and moustaches on them. It's not known why.
R7eGw TIL about Beauty, a Bald Eagle whose beak was shot off by a hunter. Bird sanctuary workers 3D-printed a prosthetic beak for her until her actual beak grew back.
AjjB TIL Bobbi Gibb is the first woman to have run the entire Boston Marathon in 1966. At the time when women were banned from entering because of their gender,she entered the marathon wearing her brother’s Bermuda shorts and a hooded sweatshirt and finished the race unofficially.
pYdee TIL that the immobilizing foam from Hulk (2003) is a real thing, often used to booby trap vehicles transporting nuclear weapons